In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Theatre Journal 56.1 (2004) 122-125



[Access article in PDF]
Nathan The Wise. By G. E. Lessing. Translated by Richard Sewell. Pearl Theatre Company, New York City. 24 November 2002.
Nathan The Wise. By G. E. Lessing. Adapted by Paul D'Andrea. Theater of the First Amendment, Fairfax, Virginia. 28 October 2001.

Since September 11, 2001, theatre artists have struggled to find ways to employ their art to commemorate, analyze, and comment upon the catastrophe. Theatres in two communities directly affected by the attacks did so by resuscitating Nathan the Wise—Lessing's plea for tolerance among Christians, Muslims, and Jews. For German audiences, the play is a beloved relic of Enlightenment reason, but productions by the Theater of the First Amendment, in suburban Washington, DC, and New York City's Pearl Theatre Company resonated with current events. The former opened [End Page 122] scarcely a month, and the latter barely a year, after jetliners slammed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The theatres chose different adaptations, but the tensions stretching both versions of the play are aptly summarized in TFA's publicity tagline: "A 12th Century Crisis. An 18th Century Perspective. Re-imagined for a 21st Century world."



Click for larger view
Figure 1
Scott Whitehurst as Saladin and Eunice Wong as Rebecca in Pearl Theatre's production of Nathan the Wise. Photo by: Carol Rosegg Photography.


Lessing based Nathan on his friend, Moses Mendelssohn, grandfather of the composer. Nathan the Wise was Lessing's artistic riposte in his ongoing religious debate with church leaders less tolerant than he. The Nazis banned the play for its favorable portrayal of a Jew. Lessing's play is set in Jerusalem around 1190—during the Third Crusade and the reign of the Muslim Sultan Saladin, who was renowned for his fairness toward his enemies and respect for the holy sites of other religions. Unlike the previous Christian conquerors of Jerusalem, Saladin invited Jews back to the city under his protection. At the heart of the play is the famous parable of the rings, adapted from Boccaccio's Decameron. Nathan, a rich Jew, returns home to find that his daughter has been rescued from a fire by a Christian Templar, a member of the religious order of knights. That very day, Sultan Saladin had spared the Templar's life. Soon after his daughter's rescue, Nathan is summoned to appear before Saladin, who wishes to know more about him. To test Nathan, Saladin asks which of the three religions prominent in Jerusalem is the true religion: Islam, Christianity, or Judaism? Rather than lie or give an offensive answer, Nathan tells a parable. In the story, a father, on his deathbed, gives a ring to his favorite son. The ring is purported to have magical powers that make the wearer compassionate and beloved by God and man. Generation after generation, the ring is passed down until one father—unable to choose between three beloved sons—has perfect copies made of the original. After the father's death, the sons fight over the rings and finally present their case before a wise judge, who determines that, perhaps, the father had tired of "the tyranny of just one ring," and, maybe in a thousand years, the true ring would reveal itself through the behavior of the wearers. Nathan explains that each person cherishes the religious tradition in which she or he is raised; therefore, there is no way of knowing which is the truest, except through the loving actions of its adherents.

Richard Sewell's version, performed by the Pearl Theatre Company, stays very close to Lessing's original. The translation retains the expansiveness and quick wit of the original German. Sewell wrote in the program notes, "I tried prose, but the play withered . . . Nathan the Wise needs altitude." Sewell's use of iambic pentameter works admirably, with only a few awkward exceptions. Sewell wrote an alternative ending to the play in which Nathan's daughter Rebecca (Recha in the original) and the Templar fall in love and marry. Director Barbara Bosch chose, however, to retain the original contrived, and sometimes confusing...

pdf

Share