SEPTEMBER 18, 7:00 PM, Main Hall
Show duration: 110 min.
Age limit: –
Bucharest State Jewish Theatre

by Martin Sherman
translation: Lorena Luchian, Alexandru Panait and Andrei Măjeri

artistic direction: Andrei Măjeri
scenography: Irina Chirilă
stage movement: Daniel Dragomir
lighting design: Andrei Ignat, Andrei Măjeri
musical training: Antonela Barnat
assistant director: Andra Sultan
scenography assistant: Miruna Rădulescu

Distribution:
Rachel: Lorena Luchian
Aunt Rose: Genius Brenda Vexler
Reb Ellis: The Troubles Sermon
Asher: Alex Iezdimir
Rebbeca: Viorica Predica
Sarah: Ana Bumbac
Spirit: Vlad Corb
Politiki Lyra: Feras Sarmini

Martin Sherman is an American playwright and screenwriter, known for his 20 plays that have been performed in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the play Bent, which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. It ran on Broadway, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. The play "Messiah," which premiered in 1982 at the Hampstead Theatre in London, "addresses the Jewish dilemma with humanity and humor" - Standard. In the 17th century, in the Polish village of Yultishk, located on the border with Ukraine, the Jewish community decimated by Cossack attacks finds hope in Shabbatay Zevi, a mysterious rabbi from Asia Minor, unanimously considered the Messiah. Through the story of a 17th-century Sephardic rabbi, Martin Sherman examines religious fanaticism and obsessive orthodoxy through the eyes of the intelligent Rachel, and asks how the martyrs of history can find salvation when it seems God is dead. Rachel turns to God incessantly. But as Jewish hope crumbles into a cruel mirage, she bitterly rejects God, only to realize that by denying his existence, he still speaks to her. Rachel declares that the true Messiah is „within us” and that it is up to the Jews to save themselves.