|
Autographed photo
of Maxim Gorky,
Courtesy of the
New York Public Library |
Maxim Gorky on the
Habima, 1926:
"A vivid example of irresistible force is the Habima
Theatre. It has been created by young Jews guided by
Zemach, an artist of value, and by a stage manager
of genius, I might say, Vachtangoff. This remarkable
work was organized by them among hunger and cold in
a constant fight for the right to express themselves
in the language of he Bible, the language of
Bialik's genius. All the artists of Habima are young
men and women forced to earn their bread by hard
toil.
I know what
difficulties and obstacles these people had to
overcome, what energy they have used in their fight
with the stupidity, the envy, the hatred, but I will
not speak of suffering when I can speak of the
victory of the spirit. We have spoken of evil, this
only fortifies it in our life. Has not the time come
to overlook our sufferings? I saw three times at
that Theatre, the play in two acts of Pinski, "The
Eternal Jew," and I was present at the dress
rehearsal of Ansky's "Dybbuk." The title part in
Pinski's play was performed by a remarkable artist,
Zemach, who gave a formidable picture of a prophet
of the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus. He played with superhuman power and
conviction. Without understanding the language, and
struck only by Zemach's force and sonority, I lived
all the suffering of the prophet whose words do not
reach the hearts of the people he loves. I felt the
great despair of a loving heart. |
The grey shadow of the curtain
vanished. It seemed as if the stage, separating the present
from the distant past, had disappeared and a colorful and
picturesque market near the walls of a little city of Judea
appeared to our eyes. One could see from the gates the
valley sweltering in the torrid heat and a lonely, dusty
palm tree on the horizon. From that moment on the
irresistible force of beauty seizes your heart, plunges it
into the life of the Jewish city, carries it into the past,
twice millenial, and the heart lives the terrible day of the
destruction of Jerusalem. Your reason asks, "What does mean
to you, Russian atheist, Jerusalem or Zion? What does mean
the destruction of the Temple?" But the heart trembles with
sadness before the suffering of the prophet who foresees the
woes of the people, and before the light-hearted stupidity
of the people who laugh at the words of the prophet.
One feels the suffering of
others as deeply as one's own, because on the stage several
young talented people live, more really than in real life,
the life of wolves, where the human being defends himself
and defends what he loves, and is so often forced to be a
hypocrite and a liar. I speak of the Jew, of the one who is
persecuted, like a rat by the dogs, by his own kin and by
strangers, and still endeavors, being gifted with talent by
nature, to love with passion that same country where he is
persecuted, the country of the pogroms.
This astonishing performance
reminds me, by its beauty and harmony, of the best years of
the Moscow Art Theatre, when these admirable artists were
young and animated by the faith in the sanctity of their
work, but the artists of Habima, it seems to me, having a
great advantage over those of the Moscow Art Theatre of the
same epoch; their art is not inferior, but they have more
passion, more ecstasy. For them the Theatre is a rite, and
one feels it immediately. The words, the gestures, the
music--everything is deeply harmonious--and in all that
burns the great wisdom that only art and talent can light.
A great amount of work has
been put into this Theatre and a new, magnificent proof of
magic force of Jewish art and talent has been created.
Habima is a Theatre the Jews can be proud of."
MAXIM GORKY
|
