Touching and quick with life are the stories of Sholem Aleichem that have stimulated translators the world over. The Folksbiene troupe understands Aleichem's men, women and children of the shtetl, their laughter and tears, their hopes and frustrations. And, above all, the actors treasure the warmth of Aleichem's Yiddish, his values of beauty and emotion. like their director, Mr. Licht, they are steeped in the shtetl's communal life.

In his "Thousand and One Nights" Aleichem has reached into the very essence of Jewish tragedy, not without ironic humor, of what happens to this people at time of war. His folk are like a seismograph -- let the earth tremble and they are the first to feel its shock.

The setting is the town of Kruschnik, Poland, during World War I. Caught between invading German and Russian armies, Kruschnik's people have their mountains of trouble. There is Yechiel, conscripted by the Russian Army. He shoots into the air.

"Why shoot," he reasons, "where everybody else is shooting ... How could you, there are men there." Yechiel is sentenced to death. "God is in his Heaven," he observes simply. The German Army enters. Yechiel is liberated from "Czarist equity and justice," but there is still the usual round of calamities and executions.

The Russians are returning. More anxiety. The Rabbi counsels his people that it is the Sabbath Eve. In the market place, the simple folk poignantly intone with song and prayer the beauty of the Sabbath as the narrator exclaims to the audience:

"Have you ever beheld such a people! The Russians are coming. Who knows, more pogroms ... there they stand singing. It is a story out of one thousand and one nights."

In this two-act play, Mr. Licht has dramatically recorded the saga of a people with fidelity to Sholem Aleichem's philosophical and religious pronouncements and regard for his ironic humor and gentle satire. A long salute to him and the Folksbiene. Performances are on Saturday night and Sunday matinee and evening.
 

-- IRVING SPIEGEL