Preface
Introduction
Part I Samuel’s Initiation: On the Possibility of Biblical Theatre
Part II Female Presentations: Oppressed and Liberated
1. The Concubine in Gibeah: the Female Body
as a Stage-prop
2. Deborah: Anti-Feminism in Text and Stage
Directions
3. Tamar: Acting-out a Role Imposed
4. Ruth: the Shrew-ing of the Tame
5. Esther and the Head of the Sceptre
Part III Women and Men, Physics and Metaphysics
6.“The Voice of my Beloved Knocketh”
7. The Educational Theatre of Proverbs
Part IV Prophets as Performers
8. Elisha: Religion, Sex and Miracles
9. Jonah: a Quest Play
10. Ezekiel: the Holy Actor
Part V Leaders: A Theatrical Gaze
11. Moses in Flesh and Spirit
12. Jehu’s Bloody Show
13. The (Unabridged) Play of David and Bathsheba
Notes
Index |
“Levy is a sensitive,
often original interpreter of the Hebrew Bible, and this first
book-length treatment opens an interesting dialogue about
‘the Bible as Theatre’.” Choice
“Levy finds within the stories of Deborah, Ruth,
Esther, and the concubine of Gibeah a highly sophisticated
portrayal of women by ancient writers who, Levy holds, have
some strong “pro-feminist” views . . . His viewpoint
offers the reader some wonderfully refreshing ways of looking
at stories that have been either overlooked or ignored by
Christians and Jews alike.
Levy is able to show that
traditional interpretation accepted by most biblical scholars
about how to interpret the prophesies of Elisha, Jonah, and
Ezekiel can be both confirmed and more deeply informed through
his “theatrical” reading of these prophets and
their stories.
His theatrical interpretations open the possibilities for
re-interpreting these stories and posit the possibility of
non-standard insights that could easily enlighten the inquisitive
mind. His understanding of ancient Hebrew history and culture
inform his theatrical study and training in such a way as
to give him a distinctively Jewish, yet strongly dramatic
methodology for interpreting these ancient stories.
Levy offers in this study
an extremely skilful approach to seeing the performative aspects
in the stories. Many books and articles have been written
analyzing the dramatic elements in various literary and historical
writing, but few scholars have shown the exciting insights
that Levy presents when he is discussing just how a particular
text could or would have been performed before an audience.
A welcome addition to the
world of theatrical and dramatic scholarship [it] comes with
the recommendation that it is well worth the time to read.”
Journal of Theatre and Performance
“Rich and provocative readings of biblical texts.”
H-Net; H-Judaic
“This is a book to be read
with the Bible at one's side: by treating these texts on a
strictly factual, down-to-earth basis, with due reverence
but without uncritical devotion, it not only deepens one's
understanding of a multitude of cultural, social and historical
aspects of its contents, but also re-tells these tremendous
stories with riveting detail, emotion and suspense.”
Martin Esslin
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