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A queer, heretical Yiddish play too edgy for 1906 lives again on Zoom
In spite of months of tsuris over production challenges, the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble soon will stream an adapted, videotaped performance of “God of Vengeance,” a groundbreaking and controversial play written by Sholem Asch in 1906.
“Sometimes the internet or the green screen wouldn’t work,” the play’s director, Bruce Bierman, said of the technical difficulties. “We held conference calls that the actors couldn’t get in on, or the audio was off and all this was going on during the pandemic, the wildfires, the elections and the insurrections.”
Among Purim’s traditions, perhaps the most well known is the Purim spiel, a theatrical retelling of the Book of Esther that can be pointed, satirical, parodic or just downright silly, depending on the community and the year.
Often, Purim spiels use the story of Esther and Haman as a way of commenting on or joking about current events and the state of the world.
So, almost one year into the pandemic and only a month and a half since a violent insurrection at the Capitol, what are we ready to laugh about?
For performer and educator Kiki Lipsett, who runs an annual politically charged spiel in the East Bay called “Irreverently Yours, The Shushan Queens,” some of last year’s jokes would work just as well as this year. Better, even.