Yiddish Theatre Ensemble’s Play Reading Series
at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life on Sunday, June 23, 2024
Join Berkeley’s award-winning Yiddish Theatre Ensemble for a staged reading of Sholem Asch’s timely 1905 play, On the Road to Zion. With a new English translation by Caraid O’Brien, the play features a cast of ensemble actors including Traveling Jewish Theater co-founder Naomi Newman, directed by Bruce Bierman. The audience will be invited to participate in a lively discussion afterwards with the actors and director.
Location: Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Admission FREE. Registration required
About the Play, On the Road to Zion by Sholem Asch
In 1905, Sholem Asch debuted his first full-length play, a symbolist drama about the diverse and varying viewpoints about the future of Jewish life at the turn of the twentieth century in Poland. In it, a family gathers from across Europe to say goodbye to their octogenarian grandparents, who are moving to Palestine to live out their final years. The family includes the traditionally religious, capitalists, Germanophiles, a Zionist, a Socialist Democrat, a secular Yiddishist, a Polish nationalist, and an artist in search of himself. The play culminates with a visitation by mythical Queen Esterka of Poland. Everyone has a different idea about the future of Jewish life, identity and homeland.
The 1905 Russian-language premiere of On the Road to Zion introduced the Russian intelligentsia to the existence of an exciting new literature in Yiddish. Produced by the grande dame of Russian theater, Vera Komissarzhevskaya—who played the original Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull—it was a sensation. Jacob and Sarah Adler starred in its Yiddish-language premiere, in New York City.
Photo by Mark Neal
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