An examination of a magical point in Czech history, the time of Rudolf II and the legend of the golem.

Presented by the Czech Center and Untitled Theater Company #61, a Theater of Ideas

at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 E. 73rd St.

Monday, November 10, at 7:00

GOLEM STORIES

written and directed by Edward Einhorn

A play reading.  Rabbi Loew creates a Golem to defend the Jews, but this Golem seems more interested in listening to the Rebbetsin's stories and falling in love with the Rabbi's daughter. Is he the reincarnated spirit of her murdered lover? Or does his childlike façade hide the face of a demon?

RUDOLF II

written by Edward Einhorn, directed by Henry Akona

A play reading.  Rudolf II's thirst for knowledge, whether artistic, scientific, or mystical, was insatiable--as was his desire for lovers of both sexes.  He was surrounded by visionaries like Tycho Brahe and Arcimboldo, plagued by visions of Libuse, and constantly attended by the mistress who had borne his only children, and his valet, a converted Jew whose secret relationship with Rudolf makes him the emperor's most valued confidant.  Set completely in Rudolf's bedroom, the play is a portrait of an emperor who was both extraordinary visionary and self-destructive, as he confines himself and those closest to him to an increasingly suffocating atmosphere of paranoia and mounting madness .