Goldberg Variations

Tabori’s text - written in 1991- is on the one hand a theatrical farce, and on the other hand a Jewish moralistic play, containing quotes from the Bible and from the lyric poetry of Shakespeare and Milton. The action takes place during rehearsals for a theatre performance that tackles a biblical subject and reflects the thoughts, the dilemmas and the aspirations of the director and the actors involved in the performance. The text is characterized by irony and a typically Jewish sense of humor, and so the performance becomes a statement for the freedom of religious expression. Moreover, the author frequently affirmed that “the farce is the perfect literary form”.

Tabori always avoided considering himself a Jewish author from the diaspora. He would say: “I did not think of myself as a Jew until others called me a Jew”. In Goldberg Variations, Tabori satirizes the Old Testament and expresses his own convictions about the Christian and Judaic religion. In his play, the biblical story of the Genesis from Golgotha Mountain is diminished to the level of a performance carried out by a dreadful God (the director, Mr. Jay), who is helped by his assistant, Goldberg.

18, 19 November 2016, GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, Esch, Luxemburg