Has anybody read, or seen, this play? I read it yesterday and it's stuck with me, but I don't understand it, especially the closing scene. I'm going to summarize the play, but I'll put the ending in spoilers in case anyone wants to read it and find out the ending for themselves. The basic premise is that a Russian village had a pogrom against its Jews a few years ago, and all but two of them, and innkeeper and his daughter, were killed. On Purim--the Jewish holiday celebrating the Book of Esther and a day of drinking, farces, plays, and masks-three Jewish minstrels arrive at the inn. They talk with the innkeeper, who refuses to worship God because God failed to prevent the pogrom. He asks the minstrels to convene a trial with him against God for deserting his people. In the second act, the innkeeper volunteers as the prosecutor, and the three minstrels as judge. But they can find no one to play God's defender. The innkeeper can't, and none of the minstrels are either. Most of this act is spent discussing how to have the trial without a defender, or trying to choose one. However, a Russian Orthodox priest comes in to warn them that the village is about to stage another pogrom, and offers them "the safety of the cross" (i.e. converting to Christianity so that the mob won't kill them). At the end of the act, a stranger appears and offers to play God's defender. In the third, the trial commences. The stranger argues that if ancient Jews went to their deaths praising God, how can the Jews of today not do the same, that God's ways are mysterious and not to be known, and that giving glory to God is the purpose of life. The innkeeper argues that God cannot be good, because he let the village Jews be killed, including devout, pious Jews; the innkeeper's daughter was raped. The stranger argues that it is wrong to bring emotion into the debate, and that only logic and reason should be used. Spoiler The play ends with the priest coming in to say it's too late. The mob is coming and he can't stop them. Impressed by the stranger's faithfulness to God, the minstrel/judges believe he must be a holy man, beloved of God, and beg him to intercede with God on their behalf. One of the minstrels suggests that they all don masks for Purim. They do so, and the stranger is revealed to be Satan. The play ends with Satan saying "So--you took me for a saint, a Just? Me? How could you be that blind? How could you be that stupid? If only you knew, if only you knew." The stage directions after this line read "(Satan is laughing. He lifts his arm as if to give a signal. At that precise moment the last candle goes out, and the door opens, accompanied by deafening and murderous roars)" The play is haunting, but I'm not sure what Wiesel is saying. The play is, of course, an allegory for the Holocaust and how to respond to it. But I'm not sure how to interpret it, especially the ending. Any thoughts?
Hmm... Being somewhat familiar with Elie Wiesel's work, I'm wondering if you might find one or two of the answers through reading some of his other works. Even though the play takes place in a Russian village, all of Wiesel's work is centered on the fact that he is a Holocaust survivor and in some ways reflect his experiences in the concentration camps. One underlying idea to consider (perhaps) is that people have questioned how could have God allowed for the kind of violence (including property destruction, and mass killings) against a group of people (who are known to be devout followers and have a deep faith in God) to happen?
