Rabbi Without A Cause (excerpt)

Synopsis:

Rabbi Godel Kaminsky has been the victim of a hit-and-run accident, leaving him severely injured.

Hearing the news of his misfortune, his mother-in-law, who lives alone in London, suffers a heart attack.

Rushing to tend to her mother, Godel’s wife – Hannah – hires Rachel to care for her husband in her absence.

What she doesn’t realise is that whilst the good rabbi is indeed recovering from his horrific injuries, there is one significant thing he has lost:  His faith.

He has lost his faith not as a result of the undeserved suffering he has had to endure but, rather, as an act of revelation during a cardiac arrest in hospital.

In a play that could have been written by the Devil himself, Elisha progressively tightens the screws on his characters, forcing each of them to cross battle lines they had never even dared cast their eyes upon before.

As the world of the Kaminskys collapses around them, we discover that all is not as it seems.

And although, in the end, through an unholy miracle, the fabric of their existence is preserved, we as an audience realise that there is one significant thing that has been severely shaken:  Our faith.

Relentless in its pursuit of the truth, Rabbi Without A Cause stands as the most rigorous dismemberment of the theistic position ever put on a stage.

Character Breakdown:
GODEL  Rabbi
HANNA  His wife
RACHEL  His carer

All characters are in their forties.

Production History:  Public reading Fortyfive Downstairs 2006.

Running-time: 110 minutes.

Excerpt available for download for free.