The Dead Fiddler

An adaptation of Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story The Dead Fiddler. Eight actor musicians conjure the vanished world of the Leibe Yentl shtetl with original music by Roderick Skeaping, who plays live for the performances.

A girl from a Jewish shtetl is possessed by the dybbuk (spirit) of a dead gypsy musician. Speaking though her mouth, he simultaneously terrorises and captivates the community with ribaldries and an exposure of the villagers’ secret hypocrisies. Attempts to exorcise the dybbuk are met with taunts and hypnotic Klezmer music from his violin. A carnival of anarchic dancing ensues until they discover that another dybbuk ­– this time a dead prostitute — has also taken up residence inside the hapless girl. The spirits joust for sole occupancy, until one villager suggests that they make an ideal marital couple.