Hanoch Levin: Selected Plays One

Krum; Schitz; The Torments of Job; A Winter Funeral; The Child Dreams

Hanoch Levin, Jessica Cohen, Evan Fallenberg, Naaman Tammuz, Jessica Cohen, Evan Fallenberg, Naaman Tammuz

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781786829139
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786829153
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'Hanoch Levin is the modern world on the stage... we badly need to hear what he has to say.' David Lan

Hanoch Levin was one of Israel's leading dramatists. Born in Tel Aviv in 1943, his work includes comedies, tragedies, and satirical cabarets, most of which he directed himself. He received numerous theatre awards both in Israel and abroad and his plays have been staged around the world. Levin was awarded the Bialik Prize in 1994.

Published in brand-new English translations, these selected volumes of Hanoch Levin, one of Israel's leading dramatists, aim to bring one of the most important playwrights of the Middle East to English speaking audiences.

Plays One contains the plays Krum (1975), Schitz (1975), The Torments of Job (1981), A Winter Funeral (1978), and The Child Dreams (1993).

SCHITZ

A musical play

Translated from the Hebrew by Naaman Tammuz

A four-person ‘musical play’, later adapted into a full-scale opera. The bourgeois existence of an elderly couple, seeking only to marry off their daughter (and get rid of her, while they’re at it), is disrupted by the eruption into their life of not one, but two wars. A unique blend of musical comedy and biting satirical themes typical of Levin.

Cast of Characters

FEFECHTZ SCHITZ

TSESCHA, his wife

SCHPRACHTZI, his daughter

TCHARCHES PELTZ

First Act

SCENE 1

A room in the Schitz household. Evening. TSESCHA, FEFECHTZ, SCHPRACHTZI. Eating.

TSESCHA: Hard times,

Schprachtzi my girl,

lock your backside up at home,

preferably in a safe

hungry men with axes are roaming the streets, they’ll

finish off

your rump fillet

and you’ll have nothing

left to offer

when your man finally arrives.

(To the meat.)

Fifty lira a kilo. Shocking. Human flesh is getting cheaper than pig meat.

(To SCHPRACHTZI.)

Come on, hurry up and get married.

Hurry up and get married, come on.

Why aren’t you getting married?!

You’re already dry,

any second now you’ll crumble into little grains of dirt;

What do you think I got married for? For myself?

You think I need this?

I got married in order to marry off a daughter!

Get married already! Come on! Get married already! Get married already, come on!

SCHPRACHTZI: Oh, why don’t you just die already!

TSESCHA: Get married and then I’ll die.

SCHPRACHTZI: Die and then I’ll get married. Dying first. I’ll be free, my face will soften, the spark will return to my eyes, and then a man will see me leaning on a double gravestone and reach his arm out to me.

TSESCHA: But can’t you see that your mother and father are already dying?!

(The Song of Anticipation for a Man.)

SCHPRACHTZI: Oh, for some man to show up, God, please,

let me see a man’s shadow fall across my dress,

because my heart’s already tired and my blood’s getting cold,

my flesh which was firm is now limp and weak,

and from one year to the next, my smile gets more bleak,

soon the time will come around

soon I’ll be well overdue

for getting a small poodle to carry me through.

FEFECHTZ: I don’t understand what’s missing in my daughter Schprachtzi that no one wants to take her? I mean, it’s a real bargain. It’s all meat, clean meat, no bones at all. And whichever side you approach from – you’ve got plenty. You’ve got plenty. You like leg – you’ve got leg. Like the breast – take breast. Tongue – here’s tongue. You wanted kidneys – here are the kidneys. And everything’s tender and fresh and melts in your hands. You rest your head – and your head sinks in. You tickle – it laughs. You stroke – it moans. You talk politics – it listens and simultaneously makes you a salad, and you look quietly at the backside and get aroused. I don’t get it, I mean in terms of meat I’m giving away two women’s worth in one!

SCHPRACHTZI: Oh, for some man to show up, God, please,

let me see a man’s shadow fall across my dress,

he can be not much to look at, he can carry a purse,

he can be a little tired and a bit past his prime

he can be mediocre in bed and not show me a good time,

but he’ll rest his head on my chest

and I’ll have something of my own and feel blessed.

It’s Saturday evening. And instead of being an orphan I’m single. I’ll go to the party at my good friend Tsfarvadila’s, I’ll eat and dance, and maybe I’ll leave my nipple-marks on some man’s chest.

(Exits.)

FEFECHTZ: Television!

(TSESCHA and FEFECHTZ exit.)

SCENE 2

The living room in TSFARVADILA’s house. Night. A party. Music and dancing. SCHPRACHTZI is sitting alone.

SCHPRACHTZI: I ate twenty sausage sandwiches out of hunger, ten out of anticipation and anxiety, and five more out of disappointment, and now I’m full of energy. Everyone’s dancing and I’m waiting.

(Starts crying.)

No, I mustn’t. I must be appeali...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• Hanoch Levin: A Short Biographical Note
• Krum
• Schitz
• The Torments of Job
• A Winter Funeral
• The Child Dreams