The Tenth Man: A Comedy-drama in Three ActsIn an old meeting room now used as a temple, a rabbi and various Jews meet for prayer on a winter day. They are not all devout; one is a comic atheist who says he only comes to the temple to keep warm and another is a young agnostic lawyer who has made a mess of his life and whom analysis is keeping from brink of suicide. One of the ten men who come this day brings his granddaughter who is in a trance. He believes she is possessed by a dybbuk; some of the others think she is just plain crazy. She glides from periods of lucidity into absolute irrationality and then into trance. During saner moments, she and the young agnostic are attracted to one another. The rabbi, convinced she has a dybbuk, arranges an exorcism. At the culmination of the ritual, it is the dybbuk of the young man that is exorcised, the one that has prevented him from loving anyone. -- Samuel French. |
Common terms and phrases
ALPER and ZITORSKY Amen ARTHUR BROOKS Atlantic Avenue Station begins believe black candles Blessed art Thou Brighton train brow Brown CABALIST Cedar Lawn chair Chassidic closes the door coat committed before Thee CONGREGATION dance daughter-in-law David Foreman DAVID HAYS dear desk dybbuk Evelyn exorcise exorcism eyes face father fellow FOREMAN frightened front door Frowning Gilgul GIRL girl's granddaughter grey hand HARRIS head Hello Hirschman insane Israel Jews KESSLER BOYS Korpotchniker lectern Listen Long Island Railroad looks Lord matter Mineola morning moves muffler mumbled Navy nervously nods opens overcoat Paddy Chayefsky phylacteries POLICEMAN prayer book praying shawl quorum RABBI rabbi's office SCHLISSEL screaming SEXTON sits slowly soul stands stares street stripe suddenly sure Susan Hayward synagogue proper talking tell thing Torah turns Upstage voice rises wall phone wife Williamsburg wine young ZITORSKY's Zohar