Some of the sets and scenery originally used by Habimah, when it produced S. Ansky’s “The Dybbuk” at a theater in Moscow in 1926, will be used here next week when the modern-day Habimah, now the National Theater of Israel, performs the same drama in New York,, it was announced here today.
Bat-Ami, the administrative head of the Habimah, made that announcement today at a press conference held by the troupe at the offices of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, sponsors of Habimah’s American tour. Some of the original Moscow sets, which Habimah took along from the Soviet capital when it moved en masse to Palestine in 1926, have been preserved and were shipped by boat to New York in preparation for the American run, Bat-Ami said.
The official American opening of Habimah’s American tour will be performed at the Little Theater here next Monday night. On the preceding evening, there will be a gala preview performance, to be followed by a supper-dance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Virtually everybody in the American theater Who’s Who is on a long list of American playwrights, actors and other theater personalities who will greet Habimah Sunday night.
WILL PLAY ALSO IN EIGHT OTHER AMERICAN CITIES AND IN CANADA
After seven weeks in New York, Habimah will appear in Newark, Philadelphia, Hartford, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Rochester, Baltimore, Washington and Chicago–closing with a return performance of “The Dybbuk” in New York on May 10.
Habimah will then return to its home, at Tel Aviv, where, according to the troupe’s artistic director, Julius Gellner, it “will definitely produce Rolf Hocbhuth’s ‘The Deputy.'” He made that announcement in reply to a question. There had been conflicting reports as to whether Habimah will perform “The Deputy,” a controversial drama which accuses the late Pope Pius XII of having maintained silence in the face of the Hitlerian mass murder of Jews during World War II.
In addition to performing “The Dybbuk,” the troupe will do two other, more modern, Israeli plays. These are “Each Had Six Wings,” by Hanon Bartov; and “Children of the Shadows,” by B. Z. Tomer. The management of the Little Theater announced at the press conference that the advance ticket sale for Habimah has been “truly spectacular.”
The performances, to.be done in Hebrew, will be translated over special devices into English, without interfering with the action on stage. Prior to the press conference, members of Habimah were officially received at City Hall here by Mayor Robert F. Wagner.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
