The Construction of Jewish Identity Seen in the Making Process of George Tabori's Jubilee: Around the Determination/Interpretation of the Last Scene

Abstract

George Tabori (1914-2007), a Jewish-Hungarian dramatist who produced his works mainly in German speaking countries (via translations) since his re-immigration into Europe in 1971, is now known as a most unique figure in the context of “theatre of the holocaust”, the idea that Robert Skloot introduced in 1982.

Jubilee (1983) is a dense amalgamation of three major components, that are, Jewish identity as something constructed through theatrical self-revelation, elements of black humor and then the Freudian model of dream interpretation. To conclude this, I examined precisely the relevant materials in the George Tabori Archive in Berlin as well as Gundula Ohngemach's unpublished pioneer report on the rehearsal of Jubilee.

In doing this, I discovered two things: (1) Tabori used both English and German in creating his play although he once said he wrote only in English. (2) It was on the very day of the premier (!) that the crucial last scene was decided almost as in the form of the current version. This indicates how Tabori strived for a convincing final effect, although the play as a whole is a plotless collage of episodic, dream-like fragments.