NEW YIDDISH REP is proud to present two plays by post-modern master Hanoch Levin in another Yiddish world premiere.
For the first time ever, The Labor of Life and The Whore from Ohio will be performed in repertory in Hebrew and Yiddish. In these two groundbreaking plays, Levin sculpts a dystopian vision of family and sexuality, exposing the layers of political corruption and social injustice that pervade our lives and putting them in stark comic relief. Scoffing at nationalistic and materialistic ambitions, Levin seamlessly weaves high-minded prose and vulgar scenarios to create a brilliant tapestry of nihilistic dreams.
THE LABOR OF LIFE begins with the hero getting his sleeping wife out of bed in the middle of the night to announce that he’s leaving her after 30 years of marriage. The heartlessness of his desertion is evident even in the words with which he tries to comfort her: “Maybe you’ll meet a widower, a real estate dealer from Los Angeles, and have a good laugh on me in America.”
THE WHORE FROM OHIO has been called poetic, devastating, vulgar, and stylish. Hoibitter, an old tramp, has dreamed all his life about an unattainable high-class prostitute in America. As his 70th birthday approaches, he seeks to give himself a birthday present that suits his pocket: a visit to a street whore.
