Dreyfus in Rehearsal [Dreyfus…]

An amateur theater company abandons its traditional repertoire to stage a play about the Dreyfus Affair, a court case and scandal in France (1894–1906) that exposed prevalent anti-Semitism within the French army and French society. The director of the play is a passionate man who seeks to bring to life, through his theater, a utopian and just world. His story takes place in 1930s Poland, and the setting has all the hallmarks of Yiddishland. One of Grumberg’s sources of inspiration for the play is the short story Dreyfus in Kassrilevké by Sholem Aleichem, the founder of Yiddish literature. While the setting of the play predates World War II, it highlights the circumstances that led up to the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, France still did not prove to be a welcoming place for Jews, or fulfill its promise as a shetl: "Happy as a Jew in France" ("Heureux comme un juif en France").

Format: Full-length play

Cast Size: 8M/2F

Running Time: 90 minutes

Character breakdown:

Michel
Motel
Maurice
Arnold
Zina
Zalman
Myriam
Wasselbaum
Two Poles

Notes:

Reference material:

“Dreyfus ou l’artisanat du théâtre”, Du théâtr amateur, approche historique et antropologique, Marie Madeleine Mervant Roux (dir.), Paris, CNRS Editions, 2004, pp. 102-113.

The play has been adapted several times. Among the most important are the following: 

1) Spectacle du Groupe 33, Théâtre Barbey, 1975

2) Spectacle d’Atleier Berechit, Centre culturel, 1980

3) Spectacle de Jean-Jacques Tessier, Petit Théâtre de Poche, 1989

Original or Prominent Production:
Directed by Jacques Rosner, with Jean Lescot (Michel), Maurice Chevit (Motel), Gérard Desarthe (Maurice), Odette Piquet, Claude Dauphin, Paris (France): Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (Pierre Dux), 01-29-1974. (Touring show in Tourcoing, Théâtre du Lambrequin, 11 January, 1974. Also performed by: Odette Piquet (Zina), Claude Dauphin (Arnold), Lucien Charbonnier (Zalman), Elisabeth Huppert (Myriam), François Marie (Wasselbaum).

Original Language: French, but the author claims it is, “the first play translated from Yiddish, written directly in French by someone who doesn’t know Yiddish and knows little French.”

Publisher:

Actes Sud Babel 1998.

English version: “Dreyfus in Rehearsal” adapted by Gaston Kanin, Dramatist’s Play Service, New York, N.Y., ©1983

Experience(s) Chronicled: European Jewry Before the Holocaust