The Hebrew Language on the Stage: Moscow/Prague/Jerusalem

Abstract

The Hebrew theatre was an integral component of the Zionist move- ment and the creation of a Hebrew culture, which became Israeli culture with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. With its first performances in schools, with children performing for their parents, beginning from the 1890’s and with amateur theatres from around 1905, the Hebrew theatre was gradually professionalized around the time of the First World War, beginning with the establishment of the Habima theatre in Moscow, in 1918. Generally speaking, the Hebrew theatre realized the Zionist utopia on the stage by speaking Hebrew. In this article I will discuss two performances where words in Hebrew, with Hebrew letters also appear visually on the stage, becoming active ‘participants’ in the stage events: the legendary production of The Dybbuk, which premiered at the newly founded Habima theatre in 1922 and was the first production of this play in Hebrew; and the Ruth Kanner Theatre’s 2013-performance called The He- brew Notebook: And other stories by Franz Kafka inspired by the notebook Kafka, who died in 1924, used for his studies of Hebrew during the last years of his life.