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A History of The Folksbiene
 

The Marriage Contract
by Ephraim Kishon

1991-1992 Season

Central Synagogue Auditorium
123 East 55th Street
New York, NY


This production was a revival of "The Marriage Contract,"
which the Folksbiene first staged during the 1982-1983 season.
 

 

 



Production still from "The Marriage Contract"
Courtesy of YIVO
 

 

A review for this play appeared in the New York Times on November 9, 1982:


Stage: 'The Marriage Contract'
by Richard F. Shepard

The only play in any language this season that begins its story with a hassle over seltzer opened over the weekend at (where else?) the Folksbiene Playhouse at 123 East 55th Street.

"The Marriage Contract" is a genuinely funny comedy, one of the few in Yiddish in which the emphasis is on humorous dialogue and conscientious characterization. The Folksbiene is in its sixty-eighth season, one of the oldest companies in town, but it still can stir up a chuckle.

It's no accident that the show is funny. it is by Ephraim Kishon, the Israeli humorist. "The Marriage Contract," which is basically a comedy with some songs thrown in, has been translated from Hebrew into English by Israel Beker of the Habima, the Israeli national theater. Mr. Beker is also its director, and he keeps the action moving briskly.

Now, about the seltzer. The centerpiece of the work is a Tel Aviv plumber who is so demanding of the women in his life that he makes an American male chauvinist seem a Caspar Milquetoast by comparison. He flies into a rage when the seltzer bottle he reflexively reaches for on the table is not there; his wife and daughter have forgotten to buy a bottle! A sexy widow, a neighbor, who has eyes on our hero, saves the day but also complicates it by bringing in her own bottle of seltzer, wrapped like champagne in a green napkin.

Seltzer bubbles up as a minor theme throughout. But the main plot concerns the daughter's betrothal to a priggish young statistician whose mother insists on seeing the marriage certificate of the daughter's parents before assenting to a wedding. The problem is that the parents don't remember getting a certificate; they were married in a kibbutz where liaisons were not casual, but rituals often were. The plot thickens as the plumber's wife rebels against tyranny and refuses to marry him again, forcing him to become a suitor and thwarting the young folks' marriage.

Leon Liebgold plays the plumber, and Zypora Spaisman is the wife. These are two true veterans of Yiddish theater, he having played romantic leads, and she a genuinely comic sharp-tongued shrew in years past. This is the first play in a long time that has put them into lead roles that have some depth to them, and they both do first-rate interpretations of their parts. They portray fully developed characters that are humorous figures and that appeal to our sympathy. Mr. Liebgold's plumber is a weak man who compensates with bluster. Miss Spaisman's part takes her from frightened spouse to reflective, rebellious but loving mate.

Ibi Kaufman strikes just the right note as the daughter, attractive and lively and strong-minded but unsure about whom she wants to marry. Ruth T. Kaminska brings much humor to her part as the intrusive, obviously designing widow. I.W. Firestone is the very essence of stuffiness as the mother-ridden statistician, while Sandy Levitt captures the earthiness of a young, free-wheeling kibbutz secretary.

"The Marriage Contract," for which you should know Yiddish because the only help you get is an English synopsis in the program, is by no means Noel Coward, but then he only worked in seltzer in drawing-room surroundings, never in Tel Aviv.

 
The Cast of Characters:   The Synopsis:

 
 

ACT I, SCENE I:

Elimelech Borozovsky, an accomplished plumber, is an absolute dictator in his home.  His wife, Shifra, therefore becomes terribly frightened when her daughter, Ayala, discovers that there is no seltzer for dinner.  It is well-known that Elimelech loves a glass of seltzer after a day's work.  A neighbor, Yaffa Birnbaum, takes advantage of the situation to interfere in the problems of the Borozovsky family.  Unfortunately, this little crisis is occurring just a few weeks before the coming marriage of Ayala and Robert Knall, the "rising star" at the Ministry of Statistics.

But where is the ketubah of Elimelech and Shifra?  It's not in the music-box, the usual repository of the family papers.  Shifra remembers that Yascha Ziskind, the secretary of Kibbutz Kfar Moshe, arranged "something" in the matter of their marriage twenty-five years ago.  Elimelech remembers it differently.

"We never got a marriage contract! Who needed such a thing in a kibbutz twenty-five years ago?" Ayala makes a practical suggestion: "Since I need your ketubah for my marriage, then just go get married!" Elimelech agrees to this solution, but the ever-obedient Shifra revolts for the first time in her life and refuses to marry him.

Robert's visit and his announcement that his mother insists on seeing the Borozovsky's marriage contract only adds fuel to the fire. Elimelech phones Kibbutz Kfar Moshe to get help in the matter. Meanwhile, Ayala gives her father a lesson in how to court her mother.

ACT 1, SCENE 2:

The next day, Elimelech tries to woo Shifra with flowers, but his courting fails and they end up in a quarrel as usual. Into this tense atmosphere enters Buki, the young new secretary of Kibbutz Kfar Moshe. He is reluctant to stay, but when he notices Ayala, he decides he must remain to help solve the marriage contract problems.

Elimelech places a desperate phone call to Mexico where Yascha Ziskind (former kibbutz secretary) is now the Israeli ambassador.

ACT 2, SCENE 1:

Soon Buki finds himself in the middle of a new domestic problem, and through his desire to help he short-circuits the electricity in the apartment. In the ensuing darkness, strange things happen.

This is the scene that Robert now discovers when he returns. Elimelech tries once again to repair his "broken" marriage, but Shifra, liberated from her housework, pours out her heart to him about her years of married subservience. Elimelech responds emotionally with the announcement. "I will start my life all over -- from the beginning!
 

ACT 2, SCENE 2:

Elimelech decides to play ill, and neighbor Yaffa takes this opportunity to care for him. Buki and Ayala find a "common language" in a quiet corner of the apartment, but no such romance blooms between Yaffa and Elimelech.

Robert, already sufficiently confused, now discovers that Ayala is an illegitimate child. Shifra packs to go and Elimelech complains that she is looting the house of its contents. Amid this excitement Buki finds their marriage contract in an unexpected place (where it was originally hidden by Yascha Ziskind); but it is too late. Elimelech is bitter, but at the end of a touching monologue, he confesses that he cannot live without Shifra. Shifra finally understands, and like in a comedy, agrees to stay.

The play ends with one of the funniest phone calls in the history of telephone communications between Israel and Mexico.

 




 

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