Shimon Levy

Tel Aviv University, Theatre Arts, Emeritus

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Dr. Shimon Levy is Professor Emeritus at Aviv University's Theater Department, and was its chairman (2000-2005). His publications include three books on Samuel Beckett’s dramatic works (MacMillan 1990
Address: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

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Sacred Spaces in the Book of Daniel

SACRED SPACES IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL Some books in the Old Testament are more dramatic than others... more SACRED SPACES IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL Some books in the Old Testament are more dramatic than others, but the enigmatic Book of Daniel is certainly one of the most theatrical biblical scriptures. 1 The text is imbued with richly developed monologues and dialogues, and its theatricality lies, primarily, in the performative nature of the language and its messages. The theatricality can also be found in its 'stage instructions,' which relate to the organization of the dramatic space, to the rich and variegated decor of the plot, and to a number of stage-props. Daniel, written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, narrates the history of Daniel, a child abducted together with three other children from conquered Jerusalem to the court of the Babylonian king (chapters 1-6). There, with God's help, Daniel is able to interpret the King's dreams and he becomes a powerful figure at court. The second half of the text tells of Daniel's apocalyptic visions (chapters 7-12), such as the vision of the four beasts, the vision of the ram and the goat, the visions with the man clothed in linen, and the vision with the archangel Michael. Daniel excels in being a 'true perception of the present and the immediate future'. 2 Daniel must be regarded as highly theatrical not only in its unique spatial tensions that will be treated here, but in the temporal sense as well, because it hovers between the plights of time present and the prophesies of time future. Traditional Jewish scholars have explained Daniel's visions as an historical, immediately relevant 'apocalypse soon', whereas Christian exegesis has tended to present the text as a messianic pre-figuration of Christ, an 'apocalypse now and always'.3 Since the predominant themes in the book are the dreams and apocalyptic visions of Daniel and the kings of Babylon, the book can be examined as a series of temporalized spaces. Observed theatrically, the various times, spaces and plots of Daniel are 'temporarily' suspended in order to reveal a I This short essay is part of my recently published book The Bible as Theatre, Brighton 2.000.

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Samuel Beckett’s Self-Referential Drama

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

The Case of the Three I’s

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

German Plays on Hebrew Stages: ‘Israelisch-deutsche Theaterbeziehung’

Dramatic Practices and Theatrical Technique

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Religion and origins Angel, She-ass, Prophet

BRILL eBooks, 2012

The story tells of the non-Israelite prophet Balaam who is recruited by the Moabite king Balak to... more The story tells of the non-Israelite prophet Balaam who is recruited by the Moabite king Balak to put a curse on the approaching Israelites. The theatrical perspective, focusing on space, movement, and sophisticated discrepancies between text and subtext in this physical-mental-spiritual plot, explores the uniqueness of the scene in a much broader drama. In this particular drama, Balaam, after the sheass scene, blesses the Children of Israel instead of cursing them. He is God bound, a prophetic puppet manipulated by divine rhetoric, not a disinterested one. The angel, ass, and prophet scene is an ironic masterpiece of intelligent theatrical religious propaganda. Balaam, compelled by a temporary, ad-hoc spiritual vision, now disappears from the biblical scene and can return to his place. In a no less subtle and understated touch of irony, Balak, the instigator of the curse, is also removed from the scene. Keywords:angel; Balaam; Balak; drama; God; Israelites; prophet; sheass

Six She's, one Not I

Samuel Beckett today/aujourd'hui, Oct 16, 2018

SIX SHE'S, ONE NOT I: Proxies of Beckettian Selves

... Levy, Shimon, “I on the Threshold of Offstage”, in The Beckett Papers, ed. by A. Jenkins and ... more

Theatre and holy script

Sussex Academic Press eBooks, 1999

... Royal Irish Academy Hardcover ISBN: 1 898723 69 9£ 45 $65 THE ARAB WRITER IN ENGLISH Arab The... more

Sacred Spaces in the Book of Daniel

Zutot, 2001

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Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel by Glenda Abramson

Comparative Drama, 1999

Von Schnitzler bis Turrini. Meilensteine auf dem Weg des österreichischen Theaters in Israel

The Radioplays

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Hellish Hebrew Theatre: The Spiritual Quest of Tofteh Aruch

Maske und Kothurn, Mar 1, 1989

At the tum of the 17 Λ century a group of rich marranos [DOUK] settled down in the city of Amster... more At the tum of the 17 Λ century a group of rich marranos [DOUK] settled down in the city of Amsterdam, and from their midst emerged a number of eminent Hebrew writers. The most notable among them was Moshe Zacut, for a long time considered to be the author of the first Hebrew drama." 1 Chaim Shirman, with appropriate enthusiasm, claims that Zacut's Tofteh Aruch (Hell Prepared) is "one of the most exalted poems ever written in Hebrew" 2. Shirman notes that "Indeed, Tofteh Aruch is not a play in the usual sense of the word. It represents a special form, that partakes both of the epic and of dramatic literature, and was possibly never intended for a stage performance." 3 Notwithstanding, he also presents the testimony of Daniel Olmo, playwright and author of Eden Aruch, which was composed in response to Zacut's work, who said that Tofteh Aruch was indeed read in public, along with musical accompaniment, in the city of Ferrara. It is unfortunate that Gershom Scholem, who wrote about Zacut as a Kabbalist and as a Talmudic scholar, did not concern himself with Zacut's contribution to Hebrew dramatic literature. Hamiel discussed Tofteh Aruch mainly from the aspect of the text's Hebrew sources 4 , and the modes in which Zacut alludes to biblical and mishnaic passages, harnessing them to his own literary and educational purposes. Tofteh Aruch, Zacut's second play (after Yessod Olam, written between 1628 and 1640) was first published in 1715 in Venice, some twenty years after the author's death. Critics emphasize, and justifiably so, the contradictoriness of Zacut's personality. He was a godfearing Jew who meticulously observed the letter of Jewish law. There is a well-known story about how he wished to unlearn the Latin he had once studied by means of a forty-day fast. In contradisctinction to his piousness, Zacut's literary works attest to his vast erudition, to his familiarity with the natural sciences, and bespeak a universal cultural learning. Zacut "could not have written his two plays had he not been familiar with Spanish drama... [he wished to] demonstrate the possibility of writing a grand tragedy in Hebrew based on the tenets of Jewish faith" 3. Tofteh Aruch demonstrates that Zacut's religious yearning was a far greater motivation for writing the drama than the attempt to imitate foreign modes of dramatic literature. In the play one finds an intense concern with the question of good and evil, immortality of the soul, divine retribution, and most important, an investigation of those levels of consciousness which differ from knowledge attained only through the senses. Tofteh Aruch, 185 stanzas in length, is a dramatic masterpiece, rich in resonance and rhythm, filled with vivid descriptions and gripping metaphors. It tells the story of a man who has experienced the process of disease, dying and death, whereupon 1 Shirman, 1935. There exists some controversey over the exact date of Zacut's birth. Shirman claims that he was born around the year 162S, whereas Melknian sets the date fifteen years earlier [

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The Israeli radio play: Toward a sociothematic analysis

Journal of Radio Studies, Sep 1, 1999

... 2,1999 The Israeli Radio Play: Toward a Sociothematic Analysis Shimon Levy This article offer... more

Oppressed spaces

Contemporary Theatre Review, Jun 1, 1995

... All of us, the whole family, all the children, all the children of Israel join him - Lecha do... more ... All of us, the whole family, all the children, all the children of Israel join him - Lecha dodi likrat kala, penei ... which the action takes place is not merely a physical shelter but, at the same time, both a symbolic womb and ... Gradually the space gains meaning and an imagistic impetus. ...

Philosophical Notions

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Godot, an Israeli Critic

Samuel Beckett today/aujourd'hui, 2017

Godot is not only offstage, he is the personification of offstage. Though years of (missed) encou... more Godot is not only offstage, he is the personification of offstage. Though years of (missed) encounters have passed since he was absent from his first appearance in 1955, Israelis still regard him as born and bred in their own neighbourhood. As a once-new immigrant to a country of immigrants, Godot’s familiarity has rapidly developed, and from one Israeli production to the next he has grown to be a doppelganger, an open-eyed though mute spokesman, an active and activating contradiction in terms: a dark mirror held up to Israeli values, ideas and behaviours. As an unseen, aggressively passive partner, Godot has been harnessed to absorb and then project major Israeli mental, social, political and ideological issues and identities.

‘How Are the Mighty Fallen’: Aspects of Contemporary Israeli Theatre

New Theatre Quarterly, Nov 1, 1990

Even at its most political, contemporary Israeli theatre tends to be self-referential – nowhere m... more Even at its most political, contemporary Israeli theatre tends to be self-referential – nowhere more so, suggests Shimon Levy, than in the theatre festivals held at Acre, where year by year over the past decade the plays selected seem to have reflected, more than coincidentally, the preoccupations of the nation, with its haunted past, its militaristic present, and a future full of uncertain or resented accommodations with neighbours for so long perceived as enemies. But Shimon Levy, who teaches in the Theatre Department at Tel Aviv University, also notes two exceptions in a generally gloomy theatrical scene: the exuberant entertainment Yanti Parazi – ‘a metaphor for the yearning for this screwed-up Holy Land’ – and a long-unperformed play on the ‘difficult’ subject of the West Bank occupation, Ephraim Returns to the Army, with its schitzoid title-character ‘deconstructing’ the conflicting elements of Israeli hopes and beliefs, for audiences not presumed to share the play&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s own progressive but unsentimentalized sympathies.

Dual Solitudes

Peace Review, Mar 1, 2003

... 12-meter-long narrow line of earth, on the two sides of which the audience was seated, forced... more

Sacred Spaces in the Book of Daniel

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Samuel Beckett’s Self-Referential Drama

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

The Case of the Three I’s

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

German Plays on Hebrew Stages: ‘Israelisch-deutsche Theaterbeziehung’

Dramatic Practices and Theatrical Technique

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Religion and origins Angel, She-ass, Prophet

BRILL eBooks, 2012

Six She's, one Not I

Samuel Beckett today/aujourd'hui, Oct 16, 2018

SIX SHE'S, ONE NOT I: Proxies of Beckettian Selves

... Levy, Shimon, “I on the Threshold of Offstage”, in The Beckett Papers, ed. by A. Jenkins and ... more

Theatre and holy script

Sussex Academic Press eBooks, 1999

... Royal Irish Academy Hardcover ISBN: 1 898723 69 9£ 45 $65 THE ARAB WRITER IN ENGLISH Arab The... more

Sacred Spaces in the Book of Daniel

Zutot, 2001

Download

Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel by Glenda Abramson

Comparative Drama, 1999

Von Schnitzler bis Turrini. Meilensteine auf dem Weg des österreichischen Theaters in Israel

The Radioplays

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Hellish Hebrew Theatre: The Spiritual Quest of Tofteh Aruch

Maske und Kothurn, Mar 1, 1989

Download

The Israeli radio play: Toward a sociothematic analysis

Journal of Radio Studies, Sep 1, 1999

... 2,1999 The Israeli Radio Play: Toward a Sociothematic Analysis Shimon Levy This article offer... more

Oppressed spaces

Contemporary Theatre Review, Jun 1, 1995

Philosophical Notions

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 1990

Godot, an Israeli Critic

Samuel Beckett today/aujourd'hui, 2017

‘How Are the Mighty Fallen’: Aspects of Contemporary Israeli Theatre

New Theatre Quarterly, Nov 1, 1990

Dual Solitudes

Peace Review, Mar 1, 2003

... 12-meter-long narrow line of earth, on the two sides of which the audience was seated, forced... more

Samuel Beckett 3 : “Les ‘dramaticules'”

by Llewellyn BROWN, Shimon Levy, and Matthieu Protin

"Si les “grandes pièces” – En attendant Godot, Oh les beaux jours et Fin de partie – font désorma... more "Si les “grandes pièces” – En attendant Godot, Oh les beaux jours et Fin de partie – font désormais partie du répertoire des metteurs en scène, le dernier théâtre de Beckett demeure méconnu des non spécialistes. Ainsi, ce troisième volume de notre Série cherche à mettre en évidence l’extrême richesse poétique de ces œuvres de la maturité, et que nous désignons – à la suite de l’auteur – par le nom de “dramaticules”. Après une réflexion sur la spécificité de ce corpus et des questions de genre qu’il soulève, ce volume examine la problématique présence / absence, avant d’étudier la place primordiale que ces pièces accordent à la voix. Deux textes hors thème traitent, respectivement, la présence de Dante, et la traduction des pièces en hébreu.

ENGLISH
If the “great plays” are a regular part of the theatrical repertoire, Beckett’s late plays remain little known by non specialists. Thus, this third volume of our Series seeks to highlight the extreme poetic richness of these mature works, and that we can call – following their author – “dramaticules”. After a reflection on the specificity of this corpus and the questions of genre it raises, this volume examines the problematics of presence / absence, before studying the central place of the voice. Two further texts deal respectively with the presence of Dante in Beckett’s work, and the translation of his plays into Hebrew.

Llewellyn BROWN (dir.) : Samuel Beckett 3 : "les ‘dramaticules’", Lettres modernes Minard, collection « La Revue des Lettres modernes », Série Samuel Beckett, 2013. 335 pages. EAN13 : 9782256911736."

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Shimon Levy

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