Bashevis’s Demons– 3 Tales by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Bashevis’s Demons is performed in Yiddish. Supertitles are clear and timely on projections above the stage. Like the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof, actors fully explore characterization as originally written.

And WHAT actors! Shane Baker, who has translated Beckett into Yiddish and toured worldwide, is an alumnus of The Ridiculous Theatre Company, studied Yiddish in Jerusalem, and finds inspiration with traditional Japanese Noh. Baker wears a kimono and carries a fan throughout. (A dark solid color would seem less of a disconnect.) The thespian moves stylistically, often ominously, visibly thinking. Speech is beautifully enunciated, face animated.

Miryem-Khaye Siegel is a Yiddish singer, songwriter, actor, and scholar who has performed internationally. She’s the co-editor of Women on the Yiddish Stage and a member of the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project. Siegel begins her first role in subtly expressive silence immediately capturing attention. She’s fully immersed as female, rooster, imp and rabbi; physical manifestations vivid and specific. The rooster (great costume) and imp are particularly creative.

The Demon

The Mirror: A neglected, young wife in rich surroundings, did little but read German poetry and embroider. Finding nothing in common with townswomen who “wore men’s boots, cooked, and had babies,” she was restless, lonely; self obsessed. Who was she really? How did she compare?

In an attic, she found a cracked mirror with an ornate good frame. The young woman began to sit naked in front of it for hours reflecting on her assets and value, “imagining a hunter, a poet, or a swordsman coming through the door.” In the mirror lived a demon who’d been observing her since arrival, waiting patiently for the opportunity to tempt and acquire.

One day, he steps out, and lying about his origin, counting on her vanity, begins seduction. They talk. He offers to spirit her away to his Lord in Hell where she’ll dance, lay with demons and ostensibly be valued. Things do not end well.

In flight

Thus Spake the Rooster – “Humans have lots of words. Roosters have one that means everything…KUKERIKU!”  (A call with the bravado of Peter Pan’s crow.) It all depends on context, movement, expression. “We even have dialects.” The cry indicates weather, action – the anticipated slaughter. It’s the answer to every question, solves every riddle. “Your ancestors don’t understand and you won’t either…”

“Some Kabbalists (the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible) theorized that the entire universe was created from the Hebrew alphabet, and that everything could be broken down into Hebrew letters, much as we analyze things in terms of atoms or people in terms of genetics…The Torah and the Hebrew alphabet are often discussed in terms of being individual, living entities. (The Importance of the word in Judaism.)

The rooster is a herald, a symbol, a representative. “Blessed is the believer.” Make of him what you will. Siegel’s personification is wonderful.

The Last Demon – Punished by Satan and exiled to a small Polish town, the last demon occupies himself by reading an old storybook. There are, he surmises, no need of his kind when so many people have become demons. He encounters a cynical imp – not good company. Learning the town has a new rabbi, the demon is convinced he can corrupt the young man and be himself released. The rabbi wavers, but is faithful. The demon is stuck for eternity with nothing but “the word.” He witnesses the annihilation of the Polish people. “No more Jews. No more Poland. No more demons…”

The Rabbi and the Demon

Though there are no demons in the Bible, both the Talmud and Kabbalah are full of them. Some familiar ones are named here. These stories can be taken as folklore or metaphor just as a book like Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum can be read as fantasy or political allegory. There are lessons either way.

Director Mosche Yassur, a veteran of both Yiddish and modern theater, is a master of less-is-more. No move, gesture or expression is extraneous. Characterization is focused and riveting. The production feels mystical.

Photos : Maria Clara Vieira Fernandes/Viver com Yiddish

Congress for Jewish Culture presents
Bashevis’s Demons – 3 Tales by Isaac Bashevis Singer
In Yiddish with English Supertitles
Direction and Design by Moshe Yassur and Beate Hein Bennett

Theatre 154 
154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington
Through January 5, 2025