| Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 07:21 pm EDT 08/05/14 |
| In reply to: | Jereemy Gerard explains why THE VISIT just doesn't work - StageLover 10:28 am EDT 08/05/14 |
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| have they made her half-gypsy/half jewish in this production? durrenmatt didn't. this has got to be a mistake. why would anyone - especially a critic - misread that? a german playwright working with these themes? hard - very hard - to believe. i can't imagine this is correct. | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 10:59 pm EDT 08/05/14 |
| In reply to: | Half Jewish??? - enoch10 07:21 pm EDT 08/05/14 |
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| As I understand it, the detail of Claire's ethnicity was added for the musical version. There's nothing in the original play that says she's not Jewish or Rom or anything else in particular. Could it be possibly to justify the unlikely presence of a woman who looks like Chita Rivera in a small village in Switzerland? Or is there some not very subtle political point being made here, e.g., if Claire were as Nordic as everyone else in town, maybe they would have believed her? | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 12:45 am EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - LegitOnce 10:59 pm EDT 08/05/14 |
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| if this has actually happened what a mind-boggling bad idea. well, i can't actually say that because i haven't seen it or the way it's been handled. if it was part of the incarnation i saw i missed it and i can't imagine that one slipping by. any way it's done it alters the piece thematically - regardless of how you approach it. it's always tricky talking about a change you haven't seen but if this is in fact now part of the musical and if makes it to nyc and there's a talk back - that's one talk back i'd be willing to attend. i'd love to know the rationale. >> There's nothing in the original play that says she's not Jewish or Rom or anything else in particular. sorry but when you're dealing with a writer born in 1921 writing in german about a german location and about, among other themes, collective guilt the "he never said she wasn't" argument comes off as too cavalier. if he had wanted her to be jewish/gypsy he'd have made her german/gypsy. it skews the piece. also, it changes her interaction with the pastor assuming that's still there. how have they introduced this ... addition? | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | Glitter 12:30 am EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - LegitOnce 10:59 pm EDT 08/05/14 |
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| I think you're on to something there, LegitOnce. During "A Masque", the mayor and villagers sing "We all got rich" then whisper "...during World War 2". I've always taken that to be an indication that the villagers aren't wholesome and innocent as they believe themselves to be. As Kander and Ebb originally wrote it, a character made it more explicit, with a character singing: "as you said, she is a hebrew." It was re-written for the Goodman version as "jewess", and followed up with her "pretending to be a lady, but 50% a gypsy, %50 a jewess, %100 a bastard, and 200% a whore" | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 12:55 am EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - Glitter 12:30 am EDT 08/06/14 |
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| >> It was re-written for the Goodman version as "jewess", and followed up with her "pretending to be a lady, but 50% a gypsy, %50 a jewess, %100 a bastard, and 200% a whore" do you know if this is the way it is at WTF? also - do you be any chance know where in the goodman version this line comes from? | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | Glitter 04:53 am EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - enoch10 12:55 am EDT 08/06/14 |
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| I'm not sure about WTF, but will report back when I see it next week! the jewess line was in the scene leading up the song "You Know Me", and then the next line are lyrics from the song. It was Matilda and a friend (the mayor's wife, I think?) gossiping about her arrival at the train station earlier. | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | Glitter 05:01 am EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - Glitter 04:53 am EDT 08/06/14 |
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| hit send too quickly! the song was cut after Goodman, but for the Signature production and the NYC concert, there was a line about from another character about her being "half gypsy, half Jewish, 100% illegitimate", as well as Claire self-identifying as a Gypsy. Race in musicals is something I enjoy looking at....for Williamstown, they've cut a character who was previously portrayed as black (he was one of Claire's american lackeys). | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | enoch10 01:31 pm EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - Glitter 05:01 am EDT 08/06/14 |
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| well, i had all kinds of (perfectly valid) arguments against this. the song "you know me"(?) is a bunch of women gossiping about her so they're unreliable. also, there is the interaction with the pastor (in the musical, the priest). the schoolmaster, the mayor, the priest are all structurally related and they all carry pretty much the same weight (with the mayor as the representative of the town having more gravitas) and they've all done her damage (granted, in the musical she mistakes the schoolmaster for his father or grandfather i can't remember which right now but it's the same idea.) in that part of the world at that time it is unlikely a young jewish girl would have had the kinds of interactions with a pastor or priest claire is responding to. none the less ... it is there. i can't believe i missed it but in the scene where claire speaks before the banquet i'm pretty sure she says her father was jewish and her mother was a gypsy. kander and ebb and/or mcnally added this. unless it is some other atrocity in the valency i've forgotten it isn't in any transition and i looked again in the german this morning and i don't think its' there. my german isn't great but it's good enough to find "der jude." besides, it would have jumped out at me the first time i ever read the play in a german literature in translation class about a hundred years ago. i've never seen the movie - is it in there? they're completely within their rights to make this interpretation and, lord knows, it's understandable. it's impossible to discuss post-war literature in german about collective guilt without wondering what role the holocaust plays. in THE VISIT it's always been there lurking in the background. personally, i think it's more effective that way but these are the kinds of choices people make when adapting a work and i'm not going to fault them for it. though i think durrenmatt would have balked. see above. i'm envious of you seeing it at WTF. i'd be kicking myself for not going but i would have had to give the tickets away even if i'd bought them. i was laid up with a sprain last week and i'm heading out of town this week. you seem familiar with the musical. i'd love to know what's been cut and what's been kept and what you think of the newest incarnation. | |
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| re: Half Jewish??? | |
| Posted by: | Glitter 04:45 pm EDT 08/06/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Half Jewish??? - enoch10 01:31 pm EDT 08/06/14 |
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| I'm looking forward to seeing and will report back later that same night with an absurd level of attention to detail, don't worry ;) I liked a lot at Goodman, fell deep in love with it at Signature, and the NYC benefit solidified it in my top 5 musicals...so I'm chomping at the bit to see what it's like now! | |
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