Events > US Theatre > The Yiddish King Lear
The Yiddish King Lear (1935) - Screening
Scene from The Yiddish King Lear (Der Yidisher Kenig Lir)
Image courtesy of
The National Center for Jewish Film
The Yiddish King Lear (Der Yidisher Kenig Lir), a 1935 film directed by Harry Thomashefsky, is based on Jacob Gord0n's famous play, which transposes the Shakespeare story to turn-of-the-century Jewish Vilna. Jacob Adler commissioned the play, and played Dovid Moishele, a career-defining role. Join us for a rare screening of a 16 mm copy of this unlikely twist on a classic tale. In discussion following the screening are Morris Dickstein and Ellen Adler. In collaboration with the National Center for Jewish Film, Brandeis University.
The Yiddish King Lear
Directed by Harry Thomashefsky
USA, 1935, 86 Minutes
Yiddish with English Subtitles
At a family Seder the pious patriarchal father announces to his three daughters that he is dividing his fortune among them and going to Jerusalem to live out his days. The father refuses to listen to the warning of his virtuous daughter who denied his authority by becoming a student in St. Petersburg. The scheming of one son-in-law and the self-righteous indolence of the other soon result in poverty and disgrace for the father. Much pain and agony ensue before the moral of the story unfolds.
“With Der Yidisher Kenig Lir ...[Gordon] crystallized the Lower East Side conflicts between traditional, immigrant parents and their modern Americanized children." -J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds
Cast:
Maurice Krohner_________________________________ Dovid Moshele Lear
Fannie Levenstein__________________________________Hanna Lear, Wife
Jacob Bergreen___________________________________________Mr. Joffe
Miriam Grossman__________________________Toibelle, youngest daughter
Eddie Pascal______________________________________________Shomoi
Rose Schwartzberg___________________________________House Servant
Morris Weisman___________________________ Abraham Chariff, son-in-law
Jeanette Paskewish___________________________Estelle, oldest Daughter
Morris Tarlofsky_______________________________Moses Chorid, the Pious
Esther Adler_________________________________Gittelle, middle daughter
Production:
Director: Harry Thomashefsky, supervised by Joseph Seiden
Play by: Jacob Gordon
Screen Adaptation: Abraham Armband
Photography: Joseph Freeman
Art Direction: Robert van Rosen
Sound Engineer: Murray Dicter
Technical Advisor: David van Tobin
Producers: Johnnie Walker and Jack Reigler
Presented by Lear Pictures, Inc.
The Yiddish King Lear has been restored by The National Center for Jewish Film
Morris Dickstein is Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he teaches courses in literature, film, and American cultural history. He is a senior fellow of the Center for the Humanities, which he founded in 1993. His books include a study of the 1960s, Gates of Eden (1977), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism; Double Agent: The Critic and Society (1992); and Leopards in the Temple (2002), a widely reviewed social history of postwar American fiction. His latest book is a collection of essays, A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World (Princeton, 2005). He is completing a cultural history of the United States in the 1930s. Morris Dickstein is Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he teaches courses in literature, film, and American cultural history. He is a senior fellow of the Center for the Humanities, which he founded in 1993. His books include a study of the 1960s, Gates of Eden (1977), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism; Double Agent: The Critic and Society (1992); and Leopards in the Temple (2002), a widely reviewed social history of postwar American fiction. His latest book is a collection of essays, A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World (Princeton, 2005). His book “DANCING IN THE DARK: A Cultural History of the Great Depression” discusses movies, plays, music, photographs, and literature during the Depression in the United States in the 1930s and is considered a monumental study of one of America’s most remarkable artistic periods.
Ellen Adler, Stella Adler’s daughter, is the only child who was a part of the Group Theatre. That is to say, her childhood was spent backstage, where she was very busy keeping her mother’s dressing room neat. The other members of the Adler family who were in the Group were her uncle Luther Adler and later her cousin Pearl. Ellen spent her summers as a child with the company at Green Mansions; Dover Furness; Nichols, CT; and of course Ellenville. She was also at Smithtown that last summer before World War II. Ellen went to Bard College and from 1948 to 1954 she lived in Paris. She knew Clifford all her life. She saw quite a lot of him when she returned to America in 1954. Some of the members of the Group became permanent members of the Adler family. Among these were Bobby Lewis, Sandford Meisner, Clifford and Betty Odets, and Boris Aronson and his wife Lisa. Life being so curious, it happens that Ellen can remember the people in the Group quite vividly, and now remains the only person left with those memories.
6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec 15, 2009
Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!