@Copyright
2000;
CITY:
ODESSA STORIES, by Isaac Babel,
Stage
version: Y. Arye & M. Yahil-Wax
The
following lines are an example of my contributions to the adaptation.
I wrote them in the style of the author ,
so they could be inserted in the scene where the story did not
provide a dialogue.
(The
Babel living room. Father Babel is reading
a newspaper, Mother Rachel is cleaning. Grandpa
Shoyl is reading the Talmud. Enter Young Babel,
violinc case in hand. He tries to sneak unnoticed to his room.).
Father
Babel
(Without
looking up from his paper.)
Well,
how was your music lesson yesterday?
Young
Babel
(Stopping
dead in his tracks.)
Fine,
Papa.
Father
Babel
Professor
Zagursky is pleased with you?
Young
Babel
Very
pleased, Pa. (Aside.)
I am a great liar. For the last three months, instead of going to violin
class I've been running off to the bird-market...
Father
Babel
Yesterday,
I met Misha Elman's uncle. The boy is paid 800 rubles per performance.
How much does he get for 15 performances a month, then?
Young
Babel
(Immediately.)
12,000,
Papa.
Father
Babel
They
say the Baron Rothschild himself, gave Yasha Hefetz a ‘goblin'!
Young
Babel
(Quickly
changing the subject. To his Grandpa who plays along.)
Grandpa,
what's a 'goblin?'
Granpa
Shoyl
(Authoritatively.)
Goblin
is French for ‘gewalt.'
Young
Babel
(Aside.)
My Grandpa Shoyl. He sells fish in the market. His hands are always
damp, covered with fish scales. He knows foreign languages and is writing
for the last 40 years a novel “The Headless Man “
Grandpa
Shoyl
(Winking
at Young Babel.)
-About
your Papa...
(They
laugh softly.)
Young
Babel
(Aside.)
And he has answers for every question. Grandpa, what's a Caesarean section?
Grandpa
Shoyl
What
that Roman Caesar, Titus, may he rot in Hell, did to our Holy Jerusalem,
that's a Caesarean section.
Mother
Rachel
Really,
Shoyl, you are confusing the boy with nonsense!