Peter Shaffer
YONADAB



CNT Split, Backyard, July 24


Directed by: Dejan Projkovski
Assistant Director: Jasmina Vasileva
Translation and Adopting: Simeon Serafimovski
Set Design: Vlado Đorevski
Costume Design: Blagoj Mičevski
Music: Dragan Dautovski
Choreography: Krenare Nevzati - Keri
Stage Movements and Rituals: Aleksandar Iliev
Proof Reading: Jelica Inaleska

The action takes place in Jerusalem 1000 B.C.

Cast:
JONADAB, King David’s nephew Branko Đorđev
DAVID, King of Judea and Israel Mitko S. Apostolovski
AMNON, David’s oldest son Rubens Muratovski
ABŠALOM, David’s favorite son Igor Stojčevski
TAMARA, David’s only daughter Gabriela Petruševska

Chorus: Filip Trajković, Trajanka Ilieva, Miki Ančevski, Gorast Cvetkovski, Borče Načev, Boško Bozadžievski; Daniela Stojkovska; Blagica Trpkovska; Mihajlo Nastovski

Stage Manager: Sabahudin Kaproi
Prompter: Žaklina Đorgievska
Lights: Kire Stavrevski
Audio: Čedomir Mladenovski

 

Yonadab hates the concept of a jealous self-contained male Jehovah, and sees a sexual scandal as a way to avenge himself

As a typical Shaffer character, Yonadab is driven by two forces. On the one hand he bears resentment against Tamar for her disdain of him, and against David for his aggressive patriarchal authority, and he sees a sexual scandal as a way to avenge himself. On the other hand, though a professed atheist, who
hates the concept of a jealous self-contained male Jehovah, he has a faint hope that the old gods may still be alive, and that through them a golden age of gentleness and peace may come to pass.

Set in the Israel of King David, c. 1,000 B.C., Yonadab tells the story of the rape of David’s daughter Tamar by his son Amnon, and other tragic events that follow. The character Yonadab is mentioned twice in the Bible. In the book of Samuel he is recorded as planning the rape, and later as reassuring the king
that though Amnon has been murdered, his other sons are all alive and well. Samuel also credits Yonadab as being a very subtle man. Shaffer remembered these passages from his youth when he came across Dan Jacobson’s novel “The Rape of Tamar,” and some fifteen years later he has supplied us with his theatrical invention of the events that took place.

Shaffer, Peter [Levin] (b. 1926 ), playwright. An English dramatist whose works have often met with remarkable success in America, he has been represented on Broadway by Five Finger Exercise (1959); the double bill The Private Ear and The Public Eye (196 3); The Royal Hunt of the Sun (196 5); a second double bill, Black Comedy and White Lies (196 7); Equus (1974); Amadeus (198 1); and Lettice and Lovage (199 0). Shaffer’s plays often return to the theme of a mediocrity (conquistador Pizarro, psychiatrist Dysart, composer Salieri, etc.) confronted with an inspired, passionate opposite (Incan ruler Atahuallpa, prodigy Mozart, etc.).