Front Cover -- Dedication -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction - Dramatic and Theatrical Creativity -- Elements of Jewish theatre -- The medium -- The narrative -- The system of values -- The language -- Nonverbal codes -- The author -- Theatre and ritual -- Basic notions and analytical tools -- Structure of the book -- Part I: Tangential Jewish Drama -- 1: Jewish Theatre and Ritual Origin -- Advent of ancient drama/theatre -- Cambridge School of Anthropology -- Shamanist theory -- Performance theory -- Re-creation theory -- The charm of ritual theories -- 2: The Book of Job as Greek Tragedy -- Between frame and body -- Fictional structure -- Considerations of medium -- Deus ex machina -- Possible performing cast -- Jewish nature of the book -- 3: Ezekiel's Exagoge -- Fragments -- Between prologue and ending -- The Exagoge as drama -- The Exagoge as Greek tragedy -- The purpose of the Exagoge -- 4: The Binding of Isaac in Theatre -- The Binding in the Bible -- The Binding in Christian theatre -- Motifs from Genesis -- Departures from Genesis -- Staging the Brome version -- An attempt at interpretation -- The Binding in Christian art -- The Jewish contribution -- 5: Fernando de Rojas' La Celestina -- Narrative -- Celestina, procuress, witch and mender of hymens -- Parmeno's witch mother -- Calixto's idolatry -- Melibea's 'honra' -- Pleberio's experience of the absurd -- La Celestina and psychology -- Social criticism -- Fictional structure -- Literary fiction or drama? -- Christian motifs -- Jewish motifs -- 6: Felipe Godinez' The Queen Esther -- The Queen Esther -- Biblical motifs -- Departures from the Bible -- The prophesy motif -- Interpretation -- 7: Leone de' Sommi's A Comedy of Betrothal -- Narrative -- Lipshitz: The role of language -- Scolnicov: Serlio's stage design -- Levy: Artistic assessment.

The play-script's Jewish nature -- Hebrew drama after de' Sommi -- Part II: Advent of Yiddish Theatre -- 8: Adoption of Theatre despite Ritual -- The ritual of Purim -- Rule of misrule -- 9: Sephardi Roots of Jewish Parody -- Sephardi parody -- Parody's paths of propagation -- A wider definition of 'parody' -- Parodies of the Scroll of Esther -- 10: The Nature of Carnival -- Spirit of carnival -- Mask and disguise -- Carnivalesque parodies of ritual -- 11: The Purim-shpil -- Element of theatre -- Jewish narratives -- A Jewish language -- Parodic element -- Carnivalesque element -- Circumstances of performance -- From ritual to secular theatre -- 12: The Purim-rabbi -- The Feast of Fools -- A model of the custom -- Circumstances of performance -- Elements of the mock ritual -- 13: A Tribute to Yiddish Theatre -- Goldfaden's The Sorceress -- The 'Shund' theatre -- Gordin's Mire'le Efros -- Ansky's The Dybbuk -- Leivick's The Golem -- 14: The Languages of the Jews and Jewish Theatre -- Hebrew -- Aramaic -- Yiddish -- Ladino -- National languages of host cultures -- The Jewish Enlightenment movement -- Yiddish and Hebrew in literature and drama -- Part III: The Jewish Nature of Israeli Theatre -- 15: Sacred Narratives in Secular Contexts -- Reconsidering myth -- Basic features of myth -- Functional approaches to myth -- A fictional approach to myth -- Mythical mappings -- Mythical mappings in secular culture -- 16: Actualization in the Israeli Theatre -- The nature of actualization -- Beckett's Waiting for Godot -- Strindberg's Miss Julia -- Chekhov's Cherry Orchard -- Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet -- Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors -- Sartre's Les Troyennes -- Metaphoric nature of actualization -- Explicit vs. implicit reference -- Actualization and universality -- Intertextual analysis -- 17: Rina Yerushalmi's Jephthah's Daughter.

The audience's biblical baggage -- Yerushalmi's stage version -- Models and anti-models -- The anti-patriarchal thrust -- Performance analysis of the scene -- 18: Sisera's Mother and The Trojan Women -- Euripides' The Trojan Women -- Sartre's Les Troyennes -- Habima's The Trojan Women -- Biblical reverberations -- 19: Rina Yerushalmi's Woyzeck 91 -- Büchner's Woyzeck -- Yerushalmi's Woyzeck 91 -- Jewish allusions -- Expected experiences -- 20: Nissim Aloni's The American Princess -- Narrative -- Myth of Oedipus -- Myth of Persephone -- Jesus and Mary Magdalene -- Isaac sacrifices Abraham -- Mythical unity -- Struggle of styles -- Israeli audiences -- 21: Hanoch Levin's Sufferings of Job -- Narrative -- Between text and intertext -- Gradation of torture -- The Jewish substratum -- Christian motifs -- Irony, absurdity and grotesque mood -- Possible message -- The Israeli audience -- List of Cited Works -- Primary sources -- Secondary sources -- Index.