The Wedding Jester
written and performed by John Feffer
directed by Josh Perlstein
Date: Sunday, February 23
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET (doors open at 1:45 p.m.)
Location: Yiddish Book Center (1021 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002)
Tickets: $12 member/student admission; $15 general admission. Available here
Accessibility: The Yiddish Book Center offers ADA-accessible parking spaces and wheelchair access for all auditoriums and exhibition spaces. If you have any questions, please call us at 413-256-4900.
About The Wedding Jester:
In 1970, in a small village somewhere in Croatia, a stand-up comedian confronts the director of Fiddler on the Roof over errors in the film’s script. In a former life, the comedian was a badkhen, a jester who served as the emcee at Jewish weddings, and he’s familiar with shtetl life in ways that Fiddler’s non-Jewish director couldn’t possibly know. The Wedding Jester traces the history of Jewish comedy from the weddings of the old country to the Borscht Belt. It challenges our notions of authenticity and of what is “too Jewish” or “not Jewish enough.” And it does what any good badkhen must do—it makes audiences laugh and cry.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Amherst Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.