Right from the beginning of his career, Sholem Asch, a yeshiva school dropout from a small Polish village, placed himself at the center of global theatrical culture. His 24 dramas were presented on major stages in multiple languages throughout the world making him one of the most produced Jewish playwrights in history. In Land of My Soul leading Asch interpreter Caraid O’Brien performs excerpts from some of Asch’s most successful and controversial dramas including God of Vengeance, Motke Thief, The Dead Man, Rabbi Doctor Silver, On the Road to Zion, Our Faith and Amnon and Tamar. This one-person performance weaves together never before seen in English monologues from Asch’s plays (translated by O’Brien) alongside their stunning theatrical histories.
The performance will be followed by a talkback with Sholem Asch’s great grandson, David Mazower, chief curator of Yiddish: A Global Culture, the Yiddish Book Center’s new core exhibition, and Lisa Newman, Director of Publishing and Public Programs, Yiddish Book Center.
Run time: 75 minutes, no intermission. The program is in English.
Co-presented by the Yiddish Book Center.
Caraid O’Brien has been translating and performing the plays of Sholem Asch since her debut production of God of Vengeance “set Show World aflame” according to the Village Voice in 1999. She has received three new play commissions from the Foundation for Jewish Culture and was commissioned by Theater J and Solas Nua in DC to write The Rabbi’s House, her adaptation of Sholem Asch’s Ibsen inspired drama Rabbi Doctor Silver. She was a 2019 Translation Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center and Sholem Asch Underworld Trilogy, her translation of three Asch plays was published by White Goat Press. Caraid co-curated the theater section of Yiddish: A Global Culture, the permanent exhibit at the Yiddish Book Center and studied Yiddish theater history and performance with legendary Yiddish actors Luba Kadison and Seymour Rexite.
