|
GOD, MAN AND DEVIL1,
by Jacob Gordin
(Yiddish: Gott, mentsh un tayvl)
|
“The
theme of 'God, Man, and Devil,'
Gordin's most famous play, is as old
as the Fall of Man. It portrays the
eternal struggle between God and
Satan, the latter not the repulsive
devil of popular belief, but the
proud, haughty, unbending Spirit
described by Milton in 'Paradise
Lost,' the Spirit that would rather
'reign in hell than serve in
heaven.' The plight of man, caught
between these two titanic
adversaries, is like that of a
football between two rival players.
Skillfully interwoven with this
Jobian or Faustian motif are two
minor motifs. One is the struggle
between capital and labor which
first began to manifest itself in
the Russian Jewish Pale of
Settlement toward the dose of the
nineteenth century, the time when
the action of the present play is supposed to
take place. Another is the age-old story of the
man who, upon suddenly growing rich, discards
the wife with whom he lived contentedly in the
days of his poverty and marries a younger one,
only to find himself too engrossed in business
to pay her any attention, and of the young bride
who adored the man while he was poor and
idealistic and who now pines away because the
man she has married is no longer the man she
formerly knew and venerated. Dubrovna, the scene
of the play, is a small town in the province of
Mohilev, Russia, which for the past two
centuries has been a leading center for the
manufacture of Jewish praying-shawls."1
God, Man and
Devil" is described as being a drama in three
acts and four scenes. Gordin's play was revised
and directed by Maurice Schwartz, and it opened
at the Yiddish Art Theatre, 114 East 14th
Street, Near Union Square, NYC, on 21 December
1928. It was first staged by the same troupe in
New York on 6 November 1919. |
|
 |
|
photo:
Jacob Gordin, playwright.
From
Zylbercweig's "Lexicon of the
Yiddish Theatre", Vol. I, 1931. |
The 1928 cast of this
production of "God, Man and Devil" included (in
alphabetical order): Celia Adler, Irving
Belchinsky, Miriam Elias, Robert Frank, Lazar
Freed, B. Gantz, Michael Gibson, Isidore
Glickman, Joseph Greenberg, Abraham Kubansky,
Sam Liner, Edward Mintz, Abraham Morevsky,
Michael Rosenberg, Gershon Rubin, Louis
Schindler, Maurice Schwartz, Pincus Sherman,
Liza Silbert, Morris Strassberg, Anna Teitelbaum,
Boris Weiner, Louis Weisberg and Hyman Wolff.
Here then is the synopsis of Jacob Gordin's
"God, Man and Devil". (The
name of the actor or actress who portrayed a particular
role is in parentheses):
SYNOPSIS
Briefly, the story
of "God, Man, and Devil" is as follows: Hersh (Dubrovner,
played by Lazar Freed), a learned and godly
scribe, who ekes out a bare pittance by writing
scrolls of the Law for synagogal use, lives in
contented poverty with his childless wife, Pese
(Miriam Elias), his two nieces and wards, Frayda
(Celia Adler) and Zippa (Anna Teitelbaum), and
with his old father, Lazar (Gershon Rubin), a
retired badkhan, or wedding bard and jester.
Hersh leads an extremely ascetic life, the only
pleasure he sometimes permits himself is playing
sacred hymns on his violin, for which he is
adored and secretly loved by Frayda. Hersh's
best friend is Hatzkel Drachma (Morris
Strassberg/Abraham Morevsky), a poor and
unschooled weaver of praying-shawls, between
whose only son Mottel (Joseph Greenberg) and
Frayda a match is proposed. As the curtain goes
up, the Drachmas (Doba, the wife, played by Liza
Silbert) come to visit Hersh, and the two
families prepare to hold a treble celebration:
In the first place, this is the fifth night of
Hanukah, the eight-day Feast of Lights
commemorating the Maccabean victories; in the
second place, Hersh has just completed the
writing of a scroll of the Law; in the third
place, Mottel and Frayda are about to become
engaged.
They are
interrupted by the intrusion of Uriel Masik
(Maurice Schwartz), who is none other than Satan
in human guise: come to corrupt the godly Hersh.
Believing that a Jew nowadays could not be led
away from God by suffering, as in the case of
Job, nor by the desires of the flesh, as In the
case of the non-Jew Faust, he proceeds to tempt
Hersh with gold. He represents himself as a
dealer in lottery tickets, and after much
persuasion, aided by the others present,
overcomes Hersh's scruples and sells him a
ticket on trust. And not content with having
aroused In this godly man a lust for gold, he
sows other seeds of evil by whispering to him
that it is against Rabbinic law for a Jew to
live more than ten years with a barren wife like
Pese, and that he ought to divorce her and marry
his young and beautiful niece Frayda.
Sure enough. Hersh
wins the 50,000 ruble prize in the lottery,
becomes rich, embarks upon large business
ventures in partnership with Masik, who has
become his adviser and inseparate companion, and
under whose influence the degeneration of his
character proceeds apace. He divorces Pese, with
whom he has lived contentedly for twenty-two
years, and marries Frayda, while giving her less
attractive sister Zippa in marriage to Mottel.
He neglects Frayda, whose grief at his changed
attitude finally affects her mind. He becomes
disrespectful and even brutal toward his aged
father. He establishes a modern, steam-run plant
for the manufacture of praying-shawls, thereby
ruining his best friend, Hatzkel, and other
weavers, who are forced to become hands in his
factory, where they are mercilessly exploited
until they are driven to revolt. Masik rubs his
hands in glee and believes that at last he has
beaten God; but he gloats too soon. Wealth has
not been able to change Hersh's essential nature
nor to obliterate the effects of his former
education and past life. And when Mottel, the
only son of his best friend in former days,
meets with a fatal accident at the factory in
Hersh's presence, the latter, who, since he be
carne rich, has never known a moment of true
happiness, awakens and realizes what a mess he
has made of his own life and that of all around
him. Bankrupt of life, he sees no escape from
the blind alley he has strayed into save by way
of death, and accordingly he hangs himself with
the very prayer-shawl which is stained with
Mottel's blood.
When Masik
discovers that Hersh has committed suicide, he
comments bitterly: "So even the power of gold is
limited. Money may mislead; it cannot annihilate
the Man in man. I have lost again."
Scenery by
Mordecai Gorelik; painted by Alex Chertov;
Costumes by Zuni Maud and Yosel Cuttler; Music
by Joseph Brody. Executive Staff: Joseph M.
Grossman, Leon Hoffman, Managers; Mae Strassberg,
Treasurer. Stage Staff: Joseph Schwartzberg,
Librarian; Ben-Zion Katz, Stage Manager.
Technical Staff: Alex Chertov, Scenic Artist;
Herman Grossman, Master Carpenter; David Gold,
Master Electrician; George Nemser, Master
Properties; I. Mishin, Superintendent. |
