An American Author, A Play in Jerusalem And A Theatre Company

The Show 

Recently, the Khan Repertory Company presented “Teibele and her Demon—a Song and Fiend-Filled Jewish Tale,” (originally written as a short story in 1963). Singer collaborated for the play with Eve Friedman, an English teacher and playwright, whom he met at a P.E.N. reception in New York. (It’s a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere.) The play premiered at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis for their 1978-79 season and appeared briefly on Broadway in 1979. Habimah presented it in Israel in 1985. In this version, songs and new characters have been added.  

The play takes place in the 1880s in a Polish Jewish village when Teibele, an attractive Jewish bride has been deserted by her closeted gay husband shortly after their wedding, leaving her an aguna who can neither divorce nor remarry until proof of the runaway husband’s death is offered. 

Her girlfriend, Gitel, shares her secret of believing in ghosts. Into the plot comes Alchonon, a teacher’s helper, and the narrator who is really the devil. The village prankster, Alchonon, one day overhears Taibele’s fascination with a story of a woman seduced by a demon, and he devises a scheme to take advantage of her beliefs. 

One night he appears in her bedroom claiming to be the demon, Hurmizah, says he knows her husband is dead, charms her with tales of the demon world, and is welcomed into her bed. Taibele gradually becomes dependent on Hurmizah’s biweekly visits. 

When winter comes, Alchonon takes ill and a funeral passing reveals he has died. Taibele then is doomed to live the rest of her life alone with the secret life she lived.