Fernando Penalosa

Parodies of An-sky's the Dybbuk Fernando Penalosa

Marc Notes: Text in English and Yiddish.; Includes bibliographical references. Publisher Marketing: The Dybbuk by S. An-sky is the most performed and the most beloved of all Jewish plays. An-sky probably first wrote it in Russian and then in Yiddish. It was subsequently translated into Hebrew by H. N. Bialik. The Dybbuk was never performed in Russian; it was first performed in Yiddish by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw in 1920 and in Hebrew by the Habima theatre in Tel Aviv in 1922. Both companies subsquently toured much of the world and the play has been translated into a number of languages and performed all over the world, right down to our own times. It has received much criticism, positive as well as negative. In the early years some parodies of The Dybbuk were published and/or performed that strike me as good-natured, affectionate criticism. I leave it to my readers to decide whether this is a valid evaluation as they peruse the four parodies included here. Three of the parodies included here are in Yiddish: The Dybbuk, by Yoysef Tunkel, With the Power of the Dybbuk, by Menakhem Kipnis and Moyshe Bunem Yustman, and The Dybbuk in the Courtyard, by Menakhem Kipnis. They are, understandably, parodies of the Yiddish version, with insider jokes likely to be appreciated by Ashkenazi Jewish theatre goers. The one parody in Hebrew, The Dybbuk at the Kumkum, by Avigdor Hameiri is, understandably, a parody of the Hebrew version, with insider jokes likely to be appreciated by theatregoers in the Yishuv under the Palestine Mandate. The text is printed in Yiddish/Hebrew and English on opposite pages for the reader's convenience.