PURIM SPIEL

 

A Purim Spiel is a comic dramatization, as a traditional type of Jewish play, or informal theatrical production, with participants wearing costumes that depict various Jewish stories, usually a narrative that describes what transpired on Purim and why it has become an important Jewish holiday. By the 18th century in eastern Romania and some other parts of Eastern Europe, Purim plays (called Purimshpiln in Yiddish) had evolved into broad-ranging satires with music and dance. This set of photographs brings the Purim Spiel as produced and showed by the Ultra-Orthodox court of Viznitz (Mendel). All actors belong to the court and prepare for the show for weeks, preparing the costumes and set. They will perform the entire act mainly for the Rabbi and will always face him, walking backwards, never showing him their back.