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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Adaptation

12

4

flexible

Notes:
from Dostoyevsky

Synopsis:
Three brothers, separated since childhood, reunite as adults in the house of their father, a lecherous, whore-mongering landowner who abandoned the boys after driving their respective mothers into early graves. The eldest son, Dmitry, a passionately impetuous ladies' man and professional soldier, angrily accuses his father of not only withholding his inheritance, but also of trying to buy the heart of Grushenka, the woman Dmitry loves. The middle son, Ivan, a cool, self-controlled intellectual and atheist, is in love with Katerina, Dmitry's manipulative, and soon-to-be-abandoned fiancée. Alyosha, the youngest brother, a warm-hearted, somewhat egoless, but down to earth young man, is studying to be a monk in a nearby monastery while striving to hold his volatile family together. The plot centers around Dmitry's growing hatred for his father, which erupts in front of a gathering of holy men at Alyosha's monastery. Alyosha entreats Ivan to help cool this hatred between Dmitry and their father, but Ivan justifies his own lack of concernand his atheismduring a heart-to-heart talk with Alyosha over dinner in a tavern. In his famous, riveting monologue, Ivan tells Alyosha the tale of the "Grand Inquisitor," in which Christ returns during the Spanish Inquisition, only to be imprisoned by an evil Cardinal and threatened with being burned at the stake. Later that night, old man Karamazov is found murdered and robbed, and the prime suspect, the impoverished Dmitry, is arrested at the height of a wild celebration in an inn just outside town, with his pockets full of cash. A climactic trial scene reveals what really happened: that Ivan, through his casual, amoral, philosophical remarks, had incited the surly servant Smerdyakov (himself an illegitimate son of Karamazov) to kill their father and then commit suicide. After Ivan is visited in the middle of the night by someone who may well be the devil, his overwhelming sense of guilt forces him to burst into the courtroom and confess this 'guilt' out loud. The jury convicts Dmitry despite this confession, which leaves Ivan only one other alternative: to selflessly, and at great risk, arrange for Dmitry's escapethereby realizing Alyosha's dream of uniting the brothers in forgiveness and love.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Adaptation

8

3

doubling

Notes:
Adapted by David Fishelson and Aaron Leichter from a dramatization by Max Brod. Based on the novel by Franz Kafka

Synopsis:
Cited as one of the 100 greatest works of fiction of all time by a panel of international writers in 2002, THE CASTLE remains "Kafka's most magical novel" (New York Times). By turns sexy, comic and horrifying, this new stage version of THE CASTLE tells the story of a man who decides to fight a monstrous bureaucracy rather than give in to it, attempting and failing to gain entrance to a castle where he has been summoned to work. In its surreal depiction of an all-powerful organization (which some, including Thomas Mann, have called a metaphor for God), THE CASTLE is a black comedy for our times

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Adaptation

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13

Notes:
H. Leivick, adapted by David Fishelson, from a translation by Joseph C. Landis

Synopsis:
Drenched in the magic and mystery of the Kabbala, THE GOLEM retells the legend of a sixteenth-century Rabbi in Prague who defies God when he molds and animates a huge clay figure to defend the Jewish community from attack. Written in Yiddish in 1921 by Russian expatriate H. Leivick, THE GOLEM was astonishingly prophetic of the events of the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel. In the wake of September 11th, the play carries with it even more powerful echoes of the dilemmas faced by our civilization today, especially the notion of whether we're forced to resort to violence to survive. Originally a daunting four hours in length, this new version clocks in at an economical one hour and twenty minutes.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

-

Adaptation

9

6

flexible

Notes:
from Dostoyevsky

Synopsis:
A young man, Leo Myshkincalled "Prince Myshkin" due to royal blood somewhere in his pastreturns to Russia after 15 years in a Swiss institution where he was treated for severe epilepsy. Carrying nothing but a small bundle, he is at first taken for an idiot by the cynical, jaded society of 1860s St. Petersburg. Gradually, his non-judgmental, forgiving and almost child-like nature bewitches all who meet him, including two of the most beautiful, sought-after women in town: Aglaya, the impulsive younger daughter of the wealthy General Yepanchin; and Nastasya Filipovna, the kept mistress of Totsky, a middle-aged dandy who seduced Nastasya as an underage young girl. Growing tired of Nastasya, Totsky tries to marry her off to one of his flunkies, but the tormented, self-hating Nastasya won't go easily. At a dazzling society party to announce this unwanted engagement, Nastasya meets the Prince, who quickly perceives that she's being victimized by the men in her life. The Prince offers to marry her himself to save her from this horrible fate, moving Nastasya to open her heart to him. Suddenly there is confusion as Rogozhin, a passionate and self-destructive merchant's son, insanely in love with Nastasya, crashes the party with his gang of drunken rowdies and offers to buy Nastasya's hand for 100,000 roubles. Torn between the saintly Myshkin and the unruly and dangerous Rogozhin, Nastasya chooses Rogozhincertain that she'd only corrupt the 'pure and gentle' soul of the Prince. As the Prince chases after Nastasya and Rogozhin, Aglaya Yepanchin falls in love with Myshkin, horrifying her father. The story rapidly builds to a series of violent confrontations as the two women face off, competing for Myshkin right before his horrified eyes, and Rogozhin tries to murder Myshkin when Nastasya cannot erase him from her heart. Gradually, the people surrounding Myshkin begin to destroy him, each wanting him for themselves and not willing to share his love. When Nastasya is murdered by Rogozhin in the play's harrowing climax, Myshkin snaps and lapses back into idiocy: a victim of a society that destroys the best part of itself when it lets greed, lust and power rule.