Vilna Troupe
Encyclopedia
The Vilna Troupe also known as Fareyn Fun Yiddishe Dramatishe Artistn (Federation of Yiddish Dramatic Actors) and later Dramă şi Comedie was an international and mostly Yiddish-speaking theatrical company, one of the most famous in the history of Yiddish theater. It was formed in and named after the city of Vilnius
(Vilna) in the Russian Empire
, later capital city of Lithuania
. Distinctly Modernist
, and strongly influenced by Russian literature
and by the ideas of Konstantin Stanislavski
, their travels in Western Europe
and later to Romania
played a significant role in the dissemination of a disciplined approach to acting that continues to be influential down to the present day.
, the troupe began with the deserted Vilna State Theatre as their base, toured Kovno, Białystok and Grodno, and soon moved to Warsaw
. Their repertoire epitomized the second golden age of Yiddish theater, with works by Ansky, Sholom Aleichem
and Sholem Asch
, as well as Molière
, Maxim Gorky
, Henrik Ibsen
, plus some Jewish-themed plays by non-Jews, notably Karl Gutzkow
's Uriel Acosta. Their uniform Lithuanian Yiddish
stood in contrast to the mix of dialects often heard in Yiddish theater at the time.
They were the first to stage Ansky's The Dybbuk. Early versions of the play were written variously in Russian
and Yiddish, but Russian director and method acting pioneer Stanislavski (who first encountered the work in Russian) made several suggestions to Ansky. One of these was that for the sake of authenticity the piece should be in Yiddish. Stanislavski's death prevented the play from being produced at the Moscow Art Theater. At the time of Ansky's death, on November 8, 1920, the play was complete but had never been professionally produced. As a tribute to Ansky, the Vilna troupe, under the direction of David Herman, utilised the 30-day period of mourning after his death to prepare the play, which opened December 9, 1920, at the Elysium Theatre in Warsaw. Its unanticipated success established the play as a classic of modern Yiddish theater.
They toured extensively; they played in New York City
, London
and Paris
. Their 1923 London production of Sholem Asch
's The God of Vengeance at the Pavilion Theatre in London's Whitechapel
district was shut down by the censor (who had originally passed it based on an English-language synopsis). The play includes a portrayal of a lesbian relationship, which is the most favorably portrayed relationship in this rather dark play. Among the members of the troupe was Joseph Green
, later a Yiddish-language filmmaker.
of the Jigniţa Summer Theater. At the time, the troupe included actresses Hanna Braz, Luba Kadison, Helene Gottlieb, Judith Lares, Hanna Mogel, and Miriam Orleska, and actors Alexander Stein, Joseph Buloff, Aizic Samberg, Joseph Kamen, Jacob Weislitz, Leib Kadison, Samuel Schäftel, Benjamin Ehrenkrantz and Haim Brakasch. The director of the company was Mordechai Mazo. Author, businessman and Zionist
activist Al. L. Zissu was instrumental in helping the transition and was reportedly the company's main financial backer after 1923. Zissu was the brother-in-law of the Romanian poet Tudor Arghezi
.
According to playwright and cultural promoter Israil Bercovici
, their disciplined approach to theater impacted not only Romanian Yiddish theater but Romanian theater generally. Their audience went beyond the usual attendees of Yiddish theater: they drew the attention of the Romanian-language
press, the Romanian theater world, and of "men of culture" generally. An August 23, 1924 article in the daily newspaper Adevărul
noted: "Such a demonstration of artistry, even on a small stage such as Jigniţa and even in a language like Yiddish ought to be seen by all who are interested in superior realization of drama." Romanian literary critic Paul Cernat argues that the Vilna Troupe acted as a ferment for the local avant-garde
, Expressionist
environment, and by extension, for cutting edge Romanian literature
. Cernat noted that while most Romanian avant-garde shows were "simple playful curiosities", "expressionist aesthetics were not without consequences on the [new Romanian] theatrical texts".
In Cernat's view, the Vilna Troupe accomplished this in tandem with various local companies and promoters. Among the latter, he cites Zissu, Benjamin Fondane
, Ion Marin Sadoveanu
, Armand Pascal, Sandu Eliad, Scarlat Callimachi
, Dida Solomon, George Ciprian
and various authors affiliated with Contimporanul
magazine. Citing cultural historian Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Cernat also concludes that the branch of Expressionism favored by the company followed a distinct path, having its roots in Hasidic Judaism
.
The Vilna Troupe was instantly made notorious by its staging of The Deluge, a work by Swedish
-born dramatist Henning Berger, which was positively reviewed by the prominent literary magazine Rampa. The Deluge was a headliner by the company, until it was replaced by Maxim Gorky
's The Lower Depths
(August 1924) The artistic praise did not pay the bills, and touring elsewhere in Romania only made the financial picture worse. According to modernist author Mihail Sebastian
, the actors' commitment and the quality of the shows contrasted heavily with the venues they were touring. Sebastian referred to one of the latter as "once destined for Jewish pornography
", and recounted how news of the Vilna Troupe "miracle" had spread by word of mouth. The situation was aggravated when the actors had to take a break from performing at the Jigniţa, following the death of its female owner, Sofia Lieblich. During that period, several actors left their temporary home in Romania, most of them settling in the United States
.
Their fortunes were salvaged by a 1925 production of Osip Dymov
's Der Zinger fun zayn troyer ("The Singer of His Sorrow"), created in collaboration with Jacob Sternberg
's troupe. Der Zingher… was another critical success: writer Victor Eftimiu
called it "a model of stylized realist theater", while dramatist Ion Marin Sadoveanu
argued that it was comparable to "the best scenes" produced in France
by the acclaimed director Jacques Copeau
. It was an unprecedented hit, and ran at length at Bucharest's Central Theater. On their 40th show with the play, the actors were rewarded with portraits specially drawn by caricaturist Kapralik. The company was by then also being reviewed by the modernist platform Integral, and especially by its two main columnists, Ion Călugăru
and M. H. Maxy
, both of whom later chose to become directly involved in its activities. Their initiative followed their dissatisfaction with the choice of Der Zinger fun zayn troyer and in particular with Joseph Buloff's directing: the magazine accused Buloff of having "abused color in order to complete a null text." For a while, Călugăru replaced Mazo as director of the troupe, while Maxy provided the scenic design
for several productions.
The positive reception indirectly helped establish close cultural connections between the newly-emancipated
Jewish-Romanian community
and sections of the ethnic Romanian
majority. Cernat notes that this was in glaring contrast to a parallel phenomenon, "the recrudescence of antisemitic manifestations, particularly among the students". Solidarity with the company and the Jewish community at large was notably expressed by left-wingers such as Arghezi, Gala Galaction
, N. D. Cocea
and Contimporanul editor Ion Vinea.
In an article for the leftist magazine Lupta, Victor Eftimiu also expressed his opinion that the cultural renaissance heralded by the Troupe could enforce cultural patriotism and nationalism among Romanian Jews, and thus make "Jewishness" prove itself more worthy than "the braggadocios" of other nationalist discourses. Writing in the Warsaw
Yiddish language Literarishe Bleter during the run of Der Zinger…, Joseph Buloff was amazed at the positive reception that Yiddish theater received among the gentiles of Bucharest. Buloff noted that the Romanian actor Tanţi Cutava was equally comfortable acting in French
and Yiddish as in his native Romanian, that he often heard ethnic Romanians singing songs from the Yiddish theater over a glass of wine, that Romanian writers and artists invited Yiddish actors to their get-togethers, all of which apparently formed a stark contrast to Warsaw at the same time. Following the November 1924 establishment of an Amicii teatrului evreiesc (Friends of the Jewish Theatre) association designed to help the troupe recover from its financial slump, several such clubs were set up by Jews and non-Jews in various Romanian localities.
The company also registered success when, in late 1925, it decided to reinstate The Deluge as its headliner. Apparently, the production was the work of several directors, and underwent significant changes from one staging to another, in both direction and assignment of roles. It earned further praise from critics, especially after Luba Kadison replaced Orleska in the play's sole female role. (Buloff and Leib Kadison, who had been assigned the title roles in the original variant, had by then withdrawn.) Der Zinger… and The Deluge were followed by successful Bucharest productions of David Pinsky's Melech David un Zaine Froien (King David and His Women) and Tolstoy's The Living Corpse
. Pressured, in part, by a 32% tax on performances by foreign troupes, by the end of 1925, the troupe had decided to reconstitute themselves as a Bucharest-based troupe, taking the Romanian-language name Dramă şi Comedie.
The "no compromise" slogan came from the statement of program, really more of an artistic manifesto
, with which the reconstituted group launched itself. The same document also declared the troupe's intent "to offer the masses and intellectuals simultaneously an institution of culture". The new troupe included such actors as Braz, Kadison, Lares, Orleska, Stein, Buloff, Kamen, Weislitz, Schäftel, and the Kadisons from the 1923 roster, plus Noemi Nathan, Joheved Weislitz, Jehuda Ehrenkranz, Samuel Irish, Simha Nathan, Sholom Schönbaum, Henry Tarlo, and Simi Weinstock.
However, Dramă şi Comedie would play only one full season of theater (1925–26), with some remnants struggling on another year. Their productions, beginning with Alter Kacyzne
's Ger tzedek ("The Neophyte") and including Nikolai Gogol
's Marriage, were critically acclaimed, but never matched the commercial success of Der Zingher…. Directed by Sternberg, and endorsed by writers Arghezi, Felix Aderca
and Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo, the Marriage production was also at the center of a dispute in the literary community, due to its innovative aesthetics. Integral reacted when some spoke of it as an example of the constructivist
"pure theatre" guidelines theorized by Contimporanul, and instead explained it as an example of "synthetic" theatre.
During that period, the staging of Ger tzedek was criticized by Contimporanul chronicler Sergiu Milorian, who saw in it proof that traditional "Yiddishist" plays were "unperformable", while arguing that the contribution of painter Arthur Kolnik in "the science" of scenic design was the show's only merit. After the sudden and unexpected death of actress Judith Lares, director Mazo left for Warsaw, and then Vilna. The troupe continued briefly with Luigi Pirandello
's Man, Beast, and Virtue in the 1926–27 season.
over the next decade or so. The first of these was a revival of The Dybbuk at the Grand Theater in April 1926. In late summer 1926 they were at the Liptzin Theater performing Rasputin and the Czarina.
In March 1929, they were playing Clement Gottesfeld's Parnuse ("Business") in The Bronx, New York. The production moved in May to the Yiddish Folks Theater at Second Avenue
and East 12th Street, near the center of New York's main Yiddish theater district of the time. Director Jakob Rotbaum began his professional career staging Eugene O'Neill
's works with the troupe in 1930.
Shows continued to be produced in Bucharest under the Vilna Troupe name even after 1927. Following the breakup of Dramă şi Comedie, a play The Flood was put on at the Baraşeum theater, which was loosely the story of the Vilna troupe. In a March 1929 article for Cuvântul
newspaper, Mihail Sebastian
announced that the company was returning to Bucharest. In early 1930, company actors also staged Isaac Leib Peretz's A Night in the Old Marketplace, later described by Crohmălniceanu as one of the "memorable dates in the history of European Yiddish theater", alongside 1925's Der Zingher fun Zain Troirer. The production, directed by Sternberg, was the subject of a "literary trial" in the intellectual community: Sternberg's radical modernist approach was scrutinized by the more reserved authors Camil Petrescu
and Barbu Lăzăreanu, but their accusations were denied merit by a pro-avant-garde group comprising Maxy, Sandu Tudor and Ilarie Voronca
. References to the troupe and its role were also present in Maxy's overview of modernist performances in Romania, published by unu
magazine in February 1931.
In January of the following year, the fate of the company was also discussed by Sebastian, in his column for Cuvântul. The writer, who had followed the Vilna Troupe's activities over the previous decade, was reviewing Joseph Kamen's return to the Romanian stage with another group of actors. Remembering his impression of the original troupe's shows, Sebastian spoke of its "melancholic destiny": "ever since then, death, dissipation and perhaps fatigue have passed through all these things. [J]udith Lares, who sleeps her eternal sleep in some town in Transylvania
. [Buloff], who confronts an infamous public in America. Stein, lost in some place I don't recall."
The company disbanded again in 1931. Still, several members of the troupe continued on occasion to perform together in the United States. In September 1936, Sonia Alomis, Alexander Asro and Noah Nachbush performed a program of short pieces at the New School for Social Research, which The New York Times
said "remind[ed] us that they are still an active force in [Jewish] theater." Among the plays performed were Sholom Aleichem's Kapores, Mikhail Artsybashev
's one-act Jealousy, Der Tunkeler
's Should I Marry, or Shouldn't I?, and Veviorke's A Philosopher—A Drunkard. Several members of the troupe participated in a 1937 New York revival of The Dybbuk, directed again by David Herman.
The Vilna Troupe's success with The Deluge had made various Romanian intellectuals seek to preserve the text in a Romanian-language translation. This was first attempted in 1928 by an author named Iosif Vanciu, but its staging by the National Theatre Cluj received bad reviews. During the final stages of World War II
, following the King Michael Coup (August 23, 1944), the project was resumed by Baraşeum and Sebastian, resulting in a loose adaptation based not on Berger's original, but on the text as performed by the Vilna Troupe. In his stage program for the play, Sebastian offered additional praise to his predecessors, but noted that, although "excellent", the Vilna Troupe's text had to be adapted for being too "sketchy".
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
(Vilna) in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, later capital city of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
. Distinctly Modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, and strongly influenced by Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
and by the ideas of Konstantin Stanislavski
Konstantin Stanislavski
Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski , was a Russian actor and theatre director. Building on the directorially-unified aesthetic and ensemble playing of the Meiningen company and the naturalistic staging of Antoine and the independent theatre movement, Stanislavski organized his realistic...
, their travels in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and later to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
played a significant role in the dissemination of a disciplined approach to acting that continues to be influential down to the present day.
Early years
Founded in 1915 or 1916 during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the troupe began with the deserted Vilna State Theatre as their base, toured Kovno, Białystok and Grodno, and soon moved to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Their repertoire epitomized the second golden age of Yiddish theater, with works by Ansky, Sholom Aleichem
Sholom Aleichem
Sholem Aleichem was the pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright...
and Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch, born Szalom Asz , also written Shalom Asch was a Polish-born American Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language.-Life and work:...
, as well as Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, plus some Jewish-themed plays by non-Jews, notably Karl Gutzkow
Karl Gutzkow
Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...
's Uriel Acosta. Their uniform Lithuanian Yiddish
Yiddish dialects
Yiddish dialects are varieties of the Yiddish language. These dialects are divided by originating region in Europe. Northeastern "Litvish" Yiddish was dominant in twentieth-century Yiddish culture and academia, while Southern dialects of Yiddish are now the most commonly spoken, preserved by many...
stood in contrast to the mix of dialects often heard in Yiddish theater at the time.
They were the first to stage Ansky's The Dybbuk. Early versions of the play were written variously in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Yiddish, but Russian director and method acting pioneer Stanislavski (who first encountered the work in Russian) made several suggestions to Ansky. One of these was that for the sake of authenticity the piece should be in Yiddish. Stanislavski's death prevented the play from being produced at the Moscow Art Theater. At the time of Ansky's death, on November 8, 1920, the play was complete but had never been professionally produced. As a tribute to Ansky, the Vilna troupe, under the direction of David Herman, utilised the 30-day period of mourning after his death to prepare the play, which opened December 9, 1920, at the Elysium Theatre in Warsaw. Its unanticipated success established the play as a classic of modern Yiddish theater.
They toured extensively; they played in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Their 1923 London production of Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch, born Szalom Asz , also written Shalom Asch was a Polish-born American Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language.-Life and work:...
's The God of Vengeance at the Pavilion Theatre in London's Whitechapel
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
district was shut down by the censor (who had originally passed it based on an English-language synopsis). The play includes a portrayal of a lesbian relationship, which is the most favorably portrayed relationship in this rather dark play. Among the members of the troupe was Joseph Green
Joseph Green (actor)
Joseph Green , born Yoysef Grinberg, a.k.a. Josef Grünberg, Joseph Greenberg and Joseph Greene, a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1924, was an actor in Yiddish theater and one of the few directors of Yiddish language films; he made four films including A brivele der mamen and...
, later a Yiddish-language filmmaker.
Bucharest
In 1923, the Vilna troupe came to Bucharest at the invitation of Isidor GoldenbergIsidor Goldenberg
Isidor Goldenberg was a Romanian Jewish singer and actor, prominent in Yiddish theater in the late 19th and early 20th century.As a boy, he sang in the choir of Leibuş Sanberg. In 1883, as an adolescent, he performed in Iaşi with the troupe of Sigmund Mogulesko, Sigmund Feinmann, and Moishe...
of the Jigniţa Summer Theater. At the time, the troupe included actresses Hanna Braz, Luba Kadison, Helene Gottlieb, Judith Lares, Hanna Mogel, and Miriam Orleska, and actors Alexander Stein, Joseph Buloff, Aizic Samberg, Joseph Kamen, Jacob Weislitz, Leib Kadison, Samuel Schäftel, Benjamin Ehrenkrantz and Haim Brakasch. The director of the company was Mordechai Mazo. Author, businessman and Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
activist Al. L. Zissu was instrumental in helping the transition and was reportedly the company's main financial backer after 1923. Zissu was the brother-in-law of the Romanian poet Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
.
According to playwright and cultural promoter Israil Bercovici
Israil Bercovici
Israil Bercovici was a Jewish Romanian dramaturg, playwright, director, biographer, and memoirist, who served the State Jewish Theater of Romania between 1955 to 1982; he also wrote Yiddish-language poetry.-Biography:...
, their disciplined approach to theater impacted not only Romanian Yiddish theater but Romanian theater generally. Their audience went beyond the usual attendees of Yiddish theater: they drew the attention of the Romanian-language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
press, the Romanian theater world, and of "men of culture" generally. An August 23, 1924 article in the daily newspaper Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
noted: "Such a demonstration of artistry, even on a small stage such as Jigniţa and even in a language like Yiddish ought to be seen by all who are interested in superior realization of drama." Romanian literary critic Paul Cernat argues that the Vilna Troupe acted as a ferment for the local avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, Expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
environment, and by extension, for cutting edge Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
. Cernat noted that while most Romanian avant-garde shows were "simple playful curiosities", "expressionist aesthetics were not without consequences on the [new Romanian] theatrical texts".
In Cernat's view, the Vilna Troupe accomplished this in tandem with various local companies and promoters. Among the latter, he cites Zissu, Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor...
, Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu was a Romanian playwright.- Biography :...
, Armand Pascal, Sandu Eliad, Scarlat Callimachi
Scarlat Callimachi (communist activist)
Scarlat Callimachi or Calimachi was a Romanian journalist, essayist, futurist poet, trade unionist, and communist activist, a member of the Callimachi family of boyar and Phanariote lineage...
, Dida Solomon, George Ciprian
George Ciprian
George Ciprian was a Romanian actor and playwright. His writings make him a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd.-Biography:...
and various authors affiliated with Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
magazine. Citing cultural historian Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Cernat also concludes that the branch of Expressionism favored by the company followed a distinct path, having its roots in Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
.
The Vilna Troupe was instantly made notorious by its staging of The Deluge, a work by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
-born dramatist Henning Berger, which was positively reviewed by the prominent literary magazine Rampa. The Deluge was a headliner by the company, until it was replaced by Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
's The Lower Depths
The Lower Depths
The Lower Depths is perhaps Maxim Gorky's best-known play. It was written during the winter of 1901 and the spring of 1902. Subtitled "Scenes from Russian Life," it depicted a group of impoverished Russians living in a shelter near the Volga. Produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18,...
(August 1924) The artistic praise did not pay the bills, and touring elsewhere in Romania only made the financial picture worse. According to modernist author Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
, the actors' commitment and the quality of the shows contrasted heavily with the venues they were touring. Sebastian referred to one of the latter as "once destined for Jewish pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
", and recounted how news of the Vilna Troupe "miracle" had spread by word of mouth. The situation was aggravated when the actors had to take a break from performing at the Jigniţa, following the death of its female owner, Sofia Lieblich. During that period, several actors left their temporary home in Romania, most of them settling in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Their fortunes were salvaged by a 1925 production of Osip Dymov
Osip Dymov
Osip Dymov is the central fictional character in the classic story Grasshopper by Anton Chekhov. For generations his character has served to inspire medical professionals as to the standards of dedication expected from them....
's Der Zinger fun zayn troyer ("The Singer of His Sorrow"), created in collaboration with Jacob Sternberg
Jacob Sternberg
Yankev Shternberg was a Yiddish theater director, teacher of theater, playwright, avant-garde poet and short-story writer, best known for his theater work in Romania between the two world wars.Shternberg grew up in the northern Bessarabian shtetl of...
's troupe. Der Zingher… was another critical success: writer Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
called it "a model of stylized realist theater", while dramatist Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu was a Romanian playwright.- Biography :...
argued that it was comparable to "the best scenes" produced in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
by the acclaimed director Jacques Copeau
Jacques Copeau
Jacques Copeau was an influential French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist. Before he founded his famous Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theater reviews for several Parisian journals, worked at the Georges Petit Gallery where he organized exhibits of artists' works...
. It was an unprecedented hit, and ran at length at Bucharest's Central Theater. On their 40th show with the play, the actors were rewarded with portraits specially drawn by caricaturist Kapralik. The company was by then also being reviewed by the modernist platform Integral, and especially by its two main columnists, Ion Călugăru
Ion Călugăru
Ion Călugăru was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and critic. As a figure on Romania's modernist scene throughout the early interwar period, he was noted for combining a picturesque perspective on the rural Jewish-Romanian community, to which he belonged, with traditionalist and...
and M. H. Maxy
M. H. Maxy
M. H. Maxy was a Romanian Cubist painter.Maxy was of German-Jewish descent. He studied first in Bucharest under Camil Ressu and Iosif Iser, then in Berlin under Arthur Segal.-External links:*...
, both of whom later chose to become directly involved in its activities. Their initiative followed their dissatisfaction with the choice of Der Zinger fun zayn troyer and in particular with Joseph Buloff's directing: the magazine accused Buloff of having "abused color in order to complete a null text." For a while, Călugăru replaced Mazo as director of the troupe, while Maxy provided the scenic design
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
for several productions.
The positive reception indirectly helped establish close cultural connections between the newly-emancipated
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
Jewish-Romanian community
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
and sections of the ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
majority. Cernat notes that this was in glaring contrast to a parallel phenomenon, "the recrudescence of antisemitic manifestations, particularly among the students". Solidarity with the company and the Jewish community at large was notably expressed by left-wingers such as Arghezi, Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
, N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and left-wing political activist, known as a major but controversial figure in the field of political satire...
and Contimporanul editor Ion Vinea.
In an article for the leftist magazine Lupta, Victor Eftimiu also expressed his opinion that the cultural renaissance heralded by the Troupe could enforce cultural patriotism and nationalism among Romanian Jews, and thus make "Jewishness" prove itself more worthy than "the braggadocios" of other nationalist discourses. Writing in the Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
Yiddish language Literarishe Bleter during the run of Der Zinger…, Joseph Buloff was amazed at the positive reception that Yiddish theater received among the gentiles of Bucharest. Buloff noted that the Romanian actor Tanţi Cutava was equally comfortable acting in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Yiddish as in his native Romanian, that he often heard ethnic Romanians singing songs from the Yiddish theater over a glass of wine, that Romanian writers and artists invited Yiddish actors to their get-togethers, all of which apparently formed a stark contrast to Warsaw at the same time. Following the November 1924 establishment of an Amicii teatrului evreiesc (Friends of the Jewish Theatre) association designed to help the troupe recover from its financial slump, several such clubs were set up by Jews and non-Jews in various Romanian localities.
The company also registered success when, in late 1925, it decided to reinstate The Deluge as its headliner. Apparently, the production was the work of several directors, and underwent significant changes from one staging to another, in both direction and assignment of roles. It earned further praise from critics, especially after Luba Kadison replaced Orleska in the play's sole female role. (Buloff and Leib Kadison, who had been assigned the title roles in the original variant, had by then withdrawn.) Der Zinger… and The Deluge were followed by successful Bucharest productions of David Pinsky's Melech David un Zaine Froien (King David and His Women) and Tolstoy's The Living Corpse
The Living Corpse
The Living Corpse is a Russian play by Leo Tolstoy. Although written around 1900, it was only published shortly after his death—Tolstoy had never considered the work finished...
. Pressured, in part, by a 32% tax on performances by foreign troupes, by the end of 1925, the troupe had decided to reconstitute themselves as a Bucharest-based troupe, taking the Romanian-language name Dramă şi Comedie.
Dramă şi Comedie
"The wandering troupe from Vilna will stay put... after an era of prolonged touring", reported Integral. "They will fix on a program, which will no longer oscillate between melodrama and an expressionist mural. Apparently, the prospect launched today is precise: a new group tending to go along the route of modern innovation. 'No compromise with lack of taste—no compromise with bad taste': a shout that justifies an existence and would be worthy of realization."The "no compromise" slogan came from the statement of program, really more of an artistic manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
, with which the reconstituted group launched itself. The same document also declared the troupe's intent "to offer the masses and intellectuals simultaneously an institution of culture". The new troupe included such actors as Braz, Kadison, Lares, Orleska, Stein, Buloff, Kamen, Weislitz, Schäftel, and the Kadisons from the 1923 roster, plus Noemi Nathan, Joheved Weislitz, Jehuda Ehrenkranz, Samuel Irish, Simha Nathan, Sholom Schönbaum, Henry Tarlo, and Simi Weinstock.
However, Dramă şi Comedie would play only one full season of theater (1925–26), with some remnants struggling on another year. Their productions, beginning with Alter Kacyzne
Alter Kacyzne
Alter Kacyzne was a Jewish writer, poet, and photographer who was killed during the Holocaust....
's Ger tzedek ("The Neophyte") and including Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
's Marriage, were critically acclaimed, but never matched the commercial success of Der Zingher…. Directed by Sternberg, and endorsed by writers Arghezi, Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca or F. Aderca Aderca, also known as Zelicu Froim Adercu or Froim Aderca; March 13, 1891 – December 12, 1962) was a Romanian novelist, playwright, poet, journalist and critic, noted as a representative of rebellious modernism in the context of Romanian literature...
and Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo, the Marriage production was also at the center of a dispute in the literary community, due to its innovative aesthetics. Integral reacted when some spoke of it as an example of the constructivist
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
"pure theatre" guidelines theorized by Contimporanul, and instead explained it as an example of "synthetic" theatre.
During that period, the staging of Ger tzedek was criticized by Contimporanul chronicler Sergiu Milorian, who saw in it proof that traditional "Yiddishist" plays were "unperformable", while arguing that the contribution of painter Arthur Kolnik in "the science" of scenic design was the show's only merit. After the sudden and unexpected death of actress Judith Lares, director Mazo left for Warsaw, and then Vilna. The troupe continued briefly with Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
's Man, Beast, and Virtue in the 1926–27 season.
Later years
After the breakup of Dramă şi Comedie, there were several revivals of the Vilna Troupe in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
over the next decade or so. The first of these was a revival of The Dybbuk at the Grand Theater in April 1926. In late summer 1926 they were at the Liptzin Theater performing Rasputin and the Czarina.
In March 1929, they were playing Clement Gottesfeld's Parnuse ("Business") in The Bronx, New York. The production moved in May to the Yiddish Folks Theater at Second Avenue
Second Avenue (Manhattan)
Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...
and East 12th Street, near the center of New York's main Yiddish theater district of the time. Director Jakob Rotbaum began his professional career staging Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's works with the troupe in 1930.
Shows continued to be produced in Bucharest under the Vilna Troupe name even after 1927. Following the breakup of Dramă şi Comedie, a play The Flood was put on at the Baraşeum theater, which was loosely the story of the Vilna troupe. In a March 1929 article for Cuvântul
Cuvântul
Cuvântul is a newspaper from Rezina, the Republic of Moldova, founded in 1995 by Tudor Iaşcenco.- External links :*...
newspaper, Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
announced that the company was returning to Bucharest. In early 1930, company actors also staged Isaac Leib Peretz's A Night in the Old Marketplace, later described by Crohmălniceanu as one of the "memorable dates in the history of European Yiddish theater", alongside 1925's Der Zingher fun Zain Troirer. The production, directed by Sternberg, was the subject of a "literary trial" in the intellectual community: Sternberg's radical modernist approach was scrutinized by the more reserved authors Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu was a Romanian playwright, novelist, philosopher and poet. He marked the end of the traditional novel era and laid the foundation of the modern novel era.- Life :...
and Barbu Lăzăreanu, but their accusations were denied merit by a pro-avant-garde group comprising Maxy, Sandu Tudor and Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca was a Romanian-French avant-garde poet and essayist.Voronca was of Jewish ethnicity...
. References to the troupe and its role were also present in Maxy's overview of modernist performances in Romania, published by unu
Unu
unu was the name of an avant-garde art and literary magazine, published in Romania from April 1928 to September 1935. Edited by writers Saşa Pană and Moldov, it was dedicated to Dada and Surrealism....
magazine in February 1931.
In January of the following year, the fate of the company was also discussed by Sebastian, in his column for Cuvântul. The writer, who had followed the Vilna Troupe's activities over the previous decade, was reviewing Joseph Kamen's return to the Romanian stage with another group of actors. Remembering his impression of the original troupe's shows, Sebastian spoke of its "melancholic destiny": "ever since then, death, dissipation and perhaps fatigue have passed through all these things. [J]udith Lares, who sleeps her eternal sleep in some town in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. [Buloff], who confronts an infamous public in America. Stein, lost in some place I don't recall."
The company disbanded again in 1931. Still, several members of the troupe continued on occasion to perform together in the United States. In September 1936, Sonia Alomis, Alexander Asro and Noah Nachbush performed a program of short pieces at the New School for Social Research, which The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said "remind[ed] us that they are still an active force in [Jewish] theater." Among the plays performed were Sholom Aleichem's Kapores, Mikhail Artsybashev
Mikhail Artsybashev
Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev ; was a Russian writer and playwright, and a major proponent of the literary style known as naturalism...
's one-act Jealousy, Der Tunkeler
Yosef Tunkel
Yosef Tunkel was a Jewish–Belarusian–American writer of poetry and humorous prose in Yiddish commonly known by the pen name Der Tunkeler or 'The dark one' in Yiddish....
's Should I Marry, or Shouldn't I?, and Veviorke's A Philosopher—A Drunkard. Several members of the troupe participated in a 1937 New York revival of The Dybbuk, directed again by David Herman.
The Vilna Troupe's success with The Deluge had made various Romanian intellectuals seek to preserve the text in a Romanian-language translation. This was first attempted in 1928 by an author named Iosif Vanciu, but its staging by the National Theatre Cluj received bad reviews. During the final stages of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, following the King Michael Coup (August 23, 1944), the project was resumed by Baraşeum and Sebastian, resulting in a loose adaptation based not on Berger's original, but on the text as performed by the Vilna Troupe. In his stage program for the play, Sebastian offered additional praise to his predecessors, but noted that, although "excellent", the Vilna Troupe's text had to be adapted for being too "sketchy".
Members
- Sonia Alomis (alternatively Alumes)
- Alexander Asro (also spelled Aleksandr Azro)
- Jacob Bleifer
- Joseph Buloff
- Moses Feder
- Joseph GreenJoseph Green (actor)Joseph Green , born Yoysef Grinberg, a.k.a. Josef Grünberg, Joseph Greenberg and Joseph Greene, a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1924, was an actor in Yiddish theater and one of the few directors of Yiddish language films; he made four films including A brivele der mamen and...
(originally surnamed Greenberg) - Leib Kadison
- Luba Kadison
- Matus Kowalski
- Jacob Lubotsky
- Mordechai Mazo
- Noah Nachbush
- Lea Naomi
- Chaim Shneier (also known as Chaim Hamerow)
- Eliosha Stein
- Sholom Tanin
- Miriam Veide
- Freda Vitalin
- Pola Walter