The Menorah Society will present "The Book of Job," its first annual play, in Jordan Hall this evening at 8.30 o'clock. The production is the chief feature in the society's celebration of its decennial year.
The play is given in English, but after the Grecian manner of dramatic production. There are no separate acts, and the action is not interrupted, but the play is divided by the use of a chorus.
The "Job" is simple and static, in keeping with the theory that the poem was originally written in imitation of Euripides. To the large chorus have been assigned two lyrical passages which serve to break up the regular rounds of speeches by the three friends and Job's responses. At the beginning of the play occurs a colloquy between the Lord and The Adversary similar to that between Athene and Poseidon in "The Trojan Women" or to that of Apollo and Death in the "Alkestis," and with this is presented Job's calamity as a forceful prologue to the suffering caused later. In the debate that follows Job in his agony rejects the theology he had inherited. Gradually he works out for himself the new concept of vindication and reward after death. The Voice out of the Whirlwind represents the infinite disparity of God and man.
The scene presents a village on the edge of the Arabian Desert, with a stone altar, and the vestiges of Job's mansion, and both the scenic and lighting effects are unusual. The cast is as follows:
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