The play that established the popularity of “serious” Yiddish theater in America. Not a translation of Lear, but a retelling of the story in 1892 that is farcical, introspective, and politically pointed all at once. Reb Dovidl Moysheles seeks to divide his estate among his three daughters before his move to Israel. The youngest, whose unflagging devotion to him is unrecognized, and her Rabbinical student boyfriend doubt the wisdom of his plans, comparing him to that great writer Shakespeare’s character, King Lear. The two eldest self-centeredly misuse his largess with their respective husbands–one a Hasid, the other a Misnagid–and ultimately turn him out of their house when he returns, disenchanted, from the promised land. For years he wanders alone but for his devoted, irreverent servant.

Can it really end in tragedy?

For this, we have the theater…

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