Miryeml

Miryeml was heralded as a powerful memorial to the million children murdered in the Holocaust. This nearly-forgotten modernist masterpiece is available in English translation for the first time.

Tea Arciszewska was a dazzling figure in the prewar Warsaw Yiddish culture scene – an actress, dramaturge, salon hostess, and muse to the renowned Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz.  

In the 1920s, she began writing a play about the experiences of children during the pogroms that followed World War I. She worked on it for decades, first publishing Miryeml in 1958.

Yiddish critics praised the play, seeing it as a powerful response to the Holocaust. They recognized the character Miryeml as an extraordinary figure in Yiddish drama. Miryeml received an Alexander Shapiro Prize from the Congress for Jewish Culture for best Yiddish drama.

Miryeml is a modernist work that deftly integrates twentieth-century history and Jewish folklore into a narrative about children’s response to trauma, challenging our expectations of Yiddish theatre.

As far as we know, the play has never been performed; hence, this will be the world-premiere! Directed by Leo Doulton, this staged reading will be performed in Sonia Gollance’s new English translation.

Cast

• Heloïse Lowenthal (MIRYEML)
• Em Lawrence (TSIRELE)
• Sarah Boneysteele (ROKHELE / BOBE / MOTHER / MADAM PRESIDENT / FEMALE PEDDLER)
• Hannah Bristow (MOTELE / SHOLEM)
• Alexis Peterman (BOREKHL / BUTCHER'S WIFE / FEMALE CUSTOMER / LANDLADY)
• Tamara Micner (LEYZERL / BUTCHER / SCRIBE / KHAYIML)
• Kaeridwyn Eftelya (DOVIDL / MEYLEKHL / RABBI / SHIFRELE / YENKL / REFUGEE MAN)
• Laura Wohlwend (MENAKHEML / BLIMELE / CANTOR ) 

The translation of this play was supported by a Translation Fellowship from the Yiddish Book Center.

Content Notes:  
The play includes descriptions of violence, sexual assault, parental loss, antisemitism, and starvation. Characters experience starvation, antisemitism, and there are on-stage deaths as a result of illness and hunger. Some of this involves children. Characters refer to mental illness and gentiles in impolite ways, and a gunshot is heard early in the play.