The Dybbuk (S. Anski) - Theater Play

By Schlomo Ansky

"The Dybbuk" original play by S. Ansky (1863 – 1920) a.k.a Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport. Adapted in English by David Serero. One of the most important Yiddish story and play of all time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: World Productions Group
• Release date: May 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463526064

Book preview

THE DYBBUK

The Play

By S. Ansky (1863 – 1920)

(a.k.a Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport)

Adapted by David Serero

CHARACTERS

Reb* Sender of Brinnits

Leye, his daughter

Frade, her aged nurse

Guttel

Bassia Leye’s friends

Menashe, Leye’s bridegroom

Nakhman, his father

Reb Mendel, Menashe’s tutor

The Messenger

Reb Azrielke of Miropolye, a Ysaddik (a Hassidic master or sage)

Mikhol, his gabbai (a lay assistant)

Reb Shimshon, the Rabbi of Miropolye

First Judge

Second Judge

Meyer, Shammes (caretaker) of the synagogue in Brinnits Khonnon

Hennakh Student’s at the Yeshiva (Talmudical academy) in Brinnits

Asher

First Batlon **

Second Batlon

Third Batlon

First Hassid

Second Hassid

Third Hassid

An Elderly Woman

A Wedding Guest (Specially invited, by custom, because he is a stranger)

A Hunchback poor men

A Man on Crutches

A Woman with a Limp

A Woman with One Arm

A Blind Woman poor women

A Tall Pale Young Woman

A Young Woman Carrying a Child

Hassidim, Yeshiva Students, Prosperous Householders, Shopkeepers, Wedding Guests, Paupers, Children

Acts I and II take place in Brinnits, Acts III and IV in Miropolye. Three months elapse between the first two acts, three days between the second and third, half a day between the third and the fourth.

ACT I

(Total darkness. Before the curtain rises, a subdued mystic singing is heard, as if from afar.)

Wherefore, Wherefore

Did the soul

From it exalted height

Fall into abysmal depths?

Within the fall the power lies

To rise again.

(The curtain rises slowly. A wooden synagogue, very old, with blackened walls. The ceiling rests on two wooden posts. An old brass chandelier hangs from the middle of the ceiling, over the bima,* which is covered with a dark cloth. High on the rear wall are the small windows looking out of the women’s gallery. A long bench stands along the wall, in front of the bench, a long wooden table cluttered with books. On the table, two tallow candle-ends burn in clay candlesticks. The candles are lower than the piles of books. To the left of the bench and table, a narrow door leading to a room for private study. In the corner, a bookcase. Wall right: in the middle, the Holy Ark; to the left of that the cantor’s reading stand on which a heavy wax memorial candle is burning. Two windows on either side of the Ark. Benches along the entire wall, in front of them several reading stands. Wall left: a large tile oven. Near it, a bench. In front of the bench, a long table also cluttered with books. A wash basin with a towel on a ring. A wide door to the street. Past the door, a chest, above which a Perpetual Light burns in its niche. HENNAKH, deeply engrossed in a book, sits before a reading stand near the cantor’s desk. Around the table at the rear wall, five or six Yeshiva students, slumped over in various attitudes of weariness, sit and chant from the Gemara with a dreamy melody. At the bima, MEYER, bent over, stands sorting the bags containing prayer shawls and phylacteries. Around the table at wall left, First, Second, and Third Batlonim sit singing, gazing into space, wholly last in dreams. The Messenger lies on the bench

Reviews for The Dybbuk (S. Anski) - Theater Play

[Corinne Shearer · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This version leaves out the ending, there is a fourth act.

[Jacob M. F. · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Decent translation, but it does not include the full play.