The Purim Plays
Tomasz Kuberczyk
(Poland)
Abstract
The first Polish language presentation of the oldest Yiddish theatrical tradition, along with its religious and social contexts. The author gives a description of the Purim festivities and mentions the traditional dislike expressed by religious circles toward theatre as a pagan phenomenon. He depicts the process by means of which elements of theatre develop from the ritual festivity, as well their literary origin and possible influences from non-Yiddish theatre. He then describes the staging of the plays themselves, relying on examples from literature and on surviving texts of Purim plays (the majority of these coming from the collection of Noah Prylucki). Author discusses the composition of such plays – the places left for improvisation, typical plots and characters, the mechanisms by means of which comical situations arise. The text is supplemented by a translation of one of the Purim plays Solomon's Wisdom (Mądrość Salomona).
Keywords:
Purim plays, Purim, parody, comismReferences
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Authors
Tomasz KuberczykPoland
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Copyright (c) 1992 Tomasz Kuberczyk
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