Simo Muir's  paper at 'Performing the Archive' conference in Galway, 2015

Date	24th July 2015
URL	https://performingthearchive2015.wordpress.com/

Abstract

My paper focuses on a new adaptation of S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk – Between Two Worlds, which was staged in Helsinki in December 2014 by a Yiddish amateur theatre group. Eighty years had passed since performances of the play at the Finnish National Theatre in 1934, which were interrupted owing to growing anti-Semitic pressure at the time. The performance of The Dybbuk in 2014 was preceded by extensive research of archival material. This research served as an inspiration for the adaptation of the play and the results were published as several articles in the theatre program.

In my paper I analyse how the archival founding shaped the adaptation of the play and which aspects and dimensions of the 1934 performance could be and were meaningfully transmitted in 2014. I also try to assess how the audience perceived the continuums between the two performances and times. Anti-Semitism, which at the beginning of the process seemed not so relevant, became suddenly topical with rising anti-Semitic incidences during 2014.

Image: Production of S. An-sky's The Dybbuk, directed by Mikaela Hasán, Helsinki 2014.