Битеф

stavljao je važnu stavku. Kad je umro - neki kažu da se übio sam, a drugi da su ga übili - Gorki je postao komunistički mučenik. Staljin je tu smrt iskoristio da optuži svoje protivnike. Übistvo Gorkog bila je česta tačka u optužnicama na moskovskim suđenjima. Isak Babelj je uhapšen 1941. Übijen je - ne zna se kad i gde. Sumrak jedan je od njegova dva komada; drugi nosi naziv Marija. Prva verzija Sumraka pojavila se 1969. godine u režiji pokojnog Shragae Friedmana i prevodu Schlonskyog. Sad imamo prevod čiji je tvorac Nili Mirski. Problem je - każe Mirski, kako rešiti pitanje posebne odeske variante ruskog jezika, iargona niklog iz kosmolitske prirode tog grada. Odeski ruski ima elemente koji su ponikli u drugim jezicima i nepoznati su u drugim ruskim narećjima, a tu spadaj u i reči koje su prodrle iz jidiia. Sumrak je, pre svega, lični zalazak Mendela Krika, ali se może tumačiti i kao zalazak čitave epohe, celog društvenog poretka. Prikazani događaji zbivaju se 1912. iii 1913.

godine, u trenutku kad se tamni oblaci prvog svetskog rata već sakupljaju na horizontú. Sve mu to daje izvesnu čehovljevsku dimenziju. Neke situacije podsećaju na Višnjik ili Vjka Vanju. Arie-Leib (Mula Rodensky) każe: Odmorićeто se, Mendele, spavaćemo. Gotovo ista rečenica kao poslednja rečenica iz Ujka Vanje. Gotovo le ti(€zamislivo prikazati Sumrak bez Ljubimova ... Umetnički direktor pozoriśta Omri Nitzan doveo ga je ovamo pošto je u Londonu video njegovu predstavu Zloćina i kazne Dostojevskog. Kao što smo rekli, ruska kolonija je uzbuđena. Ruth, Omrijeva sekretarka, provodi dane odbijajući Ljubimovljeve obožavateljke kojima izgleda ne smeta to što ga prati mlada i lepa supruga i sedmogodišnji sin. Izgleda da ćemo se češće viđati. Raźne ponude su već u vazduhu ~. možda Kralj Lir ili Višnjak . . . □

Rabbi Lubimov The Sunset Habimah Theater The Sunset, a play by Isaac Babel, arouses the known prejudice about a Jewish theater. You enter the hall and expect to see again the grotesque stereotypes of the stetl, speaking in heavy Russian accent and bringing to the stage ritual elements from the Jewish folklore, elements which for some reason or another, especially in the wake of the Jewish turnabout of the Khan Theater, invariably find their expression in the form of dancing beggars obcessed with dybbuk and mumbling meaningless utterances. But The Sunset at the Habimah

Theater is directed by Lubimov, a castaway from the Soviet Union whose plays, starting with the Good Soul from Sechuan, are constantly being shown in Moscow. The spectacle opens with a Jewish funeral, followed by the entry of Singer Hanna Roth with her guitar and a string of yeshiva students singing in a choir. These two musical groups accompany the show all along, the choir standing in place and the singer moving around the characters, thus injecting a dramatic rhythm into the events. Mendel Crick, owner of a transport company in Odessa (Yossi Pollack), an athletic man of vibrant personality according to his wife (Rivca Gur), decides to test the concept of his personal freedom beyond drinking wine and making love to a market woman (Lea Koenig) and her Russian daughter (Yael Pearl). He decides to sell his company to the righ merchant Alex Peleg, to abandon his wife, his unmarried daughter Deborah (Addy Lev), his sons: the dilinquent Lubka (Ohad Shachar) and Banya the horseman (Avi Pninon), his trusted servant Nick Yafor (Nachum Buc-

hman), and run off to Bessarabia with his young mistress and her mother. This decision causes quarrels with his sons, who try to kill him and eventually take over the business; moreover, it brings about the marriage of his daughter to Mr. Reiner, a rich Jewish merchant (Avraham Rónai), the conspiracy between the market woman, who demands part of the proceeds from the sale of the company, and the inn owner (Brinn Rolf), the broker (Robinetzki Israel) and even the synagogue beadle (Shmuel Rodensky) and the rabbi Ben Zecharia (Rafael Klatchkin). The decay, or 'sunset' as Isaac Babel prefers to call it, is an irreversible process. Mendel Çrick dies on the day of the wedding of his histerical daughter, who has so far been prevented from marrying by the dominant male personality of her father and his unwillingness to give her a dowry. His violent sons gather around the table together with all other vultures. A dramatic story indeed, and an excellent director. A stage metaphor creating the impression of a duel of smoking light beams, accompanied by the words of the beagle, who is also a teacher: First they cut the harvest, then they cut people - as a leitmotiv of events, heralding the triumph of the two sons, the rider and the criminal, over their father's assets even before his death. So his wife Nechama and his old mistress the market woman, stretching a wedding veil over him and her daughter in the middle of a sex act. And so on. Of course, the basic material, the play itself, is a potent concoction indeed, and this combination of excellent direction, powerful text and correct casting turn te play into an unforgettable experience. One of the sentimental moments is Crick's regret at the decay of his own body: I had two legs, what did Ido with them? Two eyes .. . etc., Also, with a drunkard's giggle: Take my eyes out, Nehama. Pour Jewish broth over my eyes, Nehama. Bend my back, Nehama.

Indeed, the body does dacay, together with the soul, the soul that sought freedom and found it only in death. □ Culture and Arts, Han Schoenefeld

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