Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

This is the sixth and final segment of our interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read the fifth segment here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters six storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the play’s ending and its implications.

Well, we’ve been speaking for a long time and I don’t want to keep you, but I would love to address one final point, which is the fact that we don’t hear the final story—that it doesn’t end, that it’s not told. So, what is your take on that? What is the significance of that fact; what are we waiting for?

Well, there’s a couple of things. First of all, Rabbi Nachman was dying when he told this story. He died, what, three weeks after? It’s the last story he told. So he was definitely looking at his own death. And his work in this world, in this realm, what he was trying to accomplish. Maybe he felt that he wasn’t going to be able to accomplish it, in this realm. But I think he did have a—I mean I don’t think, I know, because he said it—he said that his teachings, his spirit, would grow stronger and stronger and stronger after his death.

That’s why it’s so important not to strangle these stories. “You tell a story simply.” We prepare, we do our best, we do everything we can. But then when it comes to it we just tell it. Because the real finish to the story happens through the listener. It’s what they do with it.

And so in “The Seven Beggars,” it’s like story, story, story, story, story. But the real finish, the real end to the story is yet to happen. It’s something alchemical that will hopefully take place in the future. And hopefully what is being created in the theater that night is the possibility of something happening in the future. That’s what I really believe.

Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under IN-Festival 2008, In the Lab, Playwright's Pen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.