The play, which debuted in Vienna in 1991, is a backstage comedy set in Jerusalem. A play based on disasters in the Old and New Testaments is in rehearsal. The director of this play, Mr. Jay, is deliberately named with the initial of Jehovah. His assistant, Goldberg, is a Jew who is an Auschwitz survivor. Its plot points include the creation, the fall of man, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the golden calf and the Crucifixion, all presented with a satirical combination of seriousness, farce and unashamedly bad jokes. Mr. Jay and Goldberg play out the relationship between God and man, father and son, victimizer and victim, antisemitic figure and Jew. Everything goes wrong in this rehearsal.
The play is named after Bach’s famous musical composition Goldberg Variations and, like the music, it explores variations on a theme, delving into the different ways in which individuals cope with trauma and loss. Its dialogue is liberally laced with direct quotes and allusions to verses from Scripture and lines from Shakespeare, Milton, Celan and Beckett.
