REVIEW: The Dybbuk

Broadcast: Tuesday, 21st October, 1952

Character: Channon

Some Background

The Dybbuk (also known as ‘Between Two Worlds’) is a celebrated play of the same name by S. Ansky (pseudonym for Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport), which was written during the years between 1912-1917. The idea for the play came to Ansky as he led a Jewish folklore expedition through small towns of Eastern Europe, which was cut short by the outbreak of World War I. The Dybbuk reflects Ansky’s deep perception of the shtetl’s religious and cultural mores, as well as his insightful appreciation of its hidden spiritual resources. Plans to produce the play in Russian by Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theater in 1920 were aborted by the Bolshevik Revolution. Ansky, who died in 1920 never lived to see his play produced. The play however, was destined to become one of the most widely-produced in the history of Jewish theater. Its rich ethnographic tapestry, mystical themes, star-crossed lovers and haunting melodies were designed to bridge the historical abyss.

The Story

The Dybbuk tells the tragic, but ultimately triumphant story of a young man and his sweetheart, who are bound together by love, but who are separated by ignorance and the strictures of convention. However, as in the case of Romeo and Juliet, the device of the young lovers provides an opportunity to explore and reveal other, more profound issues; issues of power, of culture and tradition and, most importantly, of modernity.

The setting is the small village of Brinnitz in Poland in around 1850, where poor hasidic scholar, Channon (Peter Wyngarde), who is deeply in love with Leah (Yvonne Mitchell) – the beautiful stepdaughter of the rich and powerful merchant, Sender (Harold Kasket). For Channon, Leah is no ordinary woman, but the immortal beloved; the human vessel of God’s divinity, and in aspiring to her love, his soul aspires to divine fulfilment.

When Channon is away from the village pursuing his studies, Leah’s stepfather promises her in marriage to Menashe (Donald Morley). When Channon returns, he is devastated. In an attempt to reverse Sender’s decision, Channon turns to his friend and fellow scholar, Chennoch (John van Eyssen) who is known to dabble in the dangerous power of the Kabbalah in an attempt to help him win her back. He chooses a horrific death and the damning his own soul to possess Leah and the entire community of Brinnitz as a Dybbuk to force her release.

When Leah rebels against her stepfather and invites her now deceased lover to her wedding, she rejects Menashe in front of his family and all the other wedding guests, leaving Rabbi Samson (Marne Maitland) powerless to officiate. A message is sent to Azrael (Mark Dignam), a Rabbi from the nearby city of Mirapol who is wise in the arts of the Kabbalah who pronounces the ‘great malediction’ to exorcise Channon’s spirit from Leah. But she is intent on resisting, choosing death over marriage and patriarchy, promising her lover Channon that they will ascend to heaven and live together in eternity.

A Bit Of Trivia

• Playing Channon was one of Peter’s favourite roles.
• The ‘great malediction’ – or ‘Cherem’ in Hebrew – which is used by Rabbi Azrael to exorcise Channon’s spirit from Leah is the most powerful religious curse in religion. Jewish authorities were at all times reluctant to perform it because of its dreadful implications; its utterance condemns the sinner to everlasting hell. As far as anyone can be certain it was only ever pronounced once in the 20th Century; by Rabbinical Court in Eastern Europe during World War II against Adolf Hitler.
• The producer of the play, Rudolph Cartier, also worked with Peter on ‘Will Shakespear’ in 1953.
• ‘The Dybbuk’ is sometimes called ‘the Jewish Romeo and Juliet’, however, scholars have often argued that Ansky’s play is a more multidimensional work, with a deeper philosophical meaning than Shakespeare’s famous drama.
• The choreographer on the play was Tutte Lemkow, who also worked with Peter on L’Aiglon (TV), 1953; Will Shakespeare (TV), 1953; Siege of Sidney Street (Film); Jason King – To Russia With… Panache! (TV), 1972