This year, we celebrated Chanukah with an original Chanukah Play.
From the audience
The real star of this show was Rabbi Anna, writer, producer, director, wardrobe mistress, curator of the beards and stage manager; all undertaken with patience and good humour! Alongside the extra dimension to her duties: the audience.
When I arrived for the last-minute rehearsal, a few avid souls exclaimed “why are we waiting?”. Rabbinic authority was gently exercised to persuade excited spectators to move back and allow room for the acting, though some could still not resist the temptation to inch forward!
I hadn’t appreciated how these contributions and encroachments were an essential part of this multi-layered drama. I knew that it employed the age-old device of a play within a play, what I was not expecting was the triple bluff – how the 4th wall dissolved and audience participation gently insinuated itself. Even before the acting began! Later, Warren’s lightly puffed-up Antiochus drew panto-style booing.
The play explored the Chanukkah theme of bringing “light into dark times” and the relationship between the miraculous, faith and identity. The Chanukah Menorah symbolises everlasting ’ancient solar panels’, powered by courage. Stories have a transcendent power to warm the soul and inspire future generations. They contain their own truth. “Sacred scrolls may be destroyed, but not the words written on our hearts”.
The light burned for eight days “not because the oil was endless, but because their faith was”. Identity and faith are ultimately indivisible: one fortifies the other.
A stranger enters just as our present-day celebrants “chose to see the light when the world grew dim”. By welcoming him they reaffirm the universal significance of Chanukah: a festival of generosity. His enigmatic presence suggests, just as the play does, a “past in the present”.
The whole cast performed with sensitivity and gusto. It would be invidious and unnecessary to single out individual performances. However, I must praise Reuben for his alarmingly realistic battle scene with Rachel. Only the young could embrace death with such enthusiasm.
For my own part, I embraced my character as directed. I’ve since been unable to escape and am doomed to walk the earth as an incorporeal enigma and metaphor…
-and from our ‘Grandma’ actor’:
Rabbi Anna persuaded me that I wanted to be in the play at the Chanukah party and that there was an ideal part for me. I was a little perplexed to find that the cast list I received described my part as a ‘Comical Grandmother’. The cast duly assembled Jewish Time, half an hour before the party started, for our one and only rehearsal.
The play opened the party proceedings, and cast members waved scripts of un-learned parts in the air. Anna sent helpful instructions from the sidelines. The Goodies were cheered; the baddies were booed by an enthusiastic audience; False beards were worn, swords clashed and victory was celebrated. Both cast members and audience seemed to engage with and enjoy the performance.
and from our ‘teenage’ actor:
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to play a part in a Chanukah play at the Chanukah party. To start with, I wasn’t too excited as I thought that I would be embarrassed, especially with my dad being in it as well. I was assigned the role of a teenage girl, whose lines were quite fun. We arrived at the GDA before everyone else to rehearse, but we managed to run through it only once, which led to everyone feeling a bit nervous. Luckily Rabbi Anna was there and ensured we felt relaxed and ready to perform. Despite the nerves, the play went well and the audience seemed to enjoy it. It was a great experience to spend with the community, especially with some delicious donuts awaiting us.