The Dreamer

"Am I too a dreamer, here in 2017? Entirely possible. Theatre and music let me dream, and I do not hold back. I took a small part of the Yiddish cultural inheritance, one of Menachem Mendel's many letters, and made from it an original play in which I mixed situations, actions and characters of my own invention. I present the great dreams of the early twentieth century: the American dream, the dream of socialism, the dream of Zionism. Listening now to these hopeful songs, we know what became of those utopias. My play is a game of illusions and disappointments. Menachem Mendel, the little dreamer risen from the people, draws us into that game; and through his adventure our own secret wishes for success and happiness are projected onto the stage. But life does not always go the way we want, and disillusion comes. Despite the obstacles, the hostile fate, the failures, the dreamer keeps his faith in a better future. He gives us a lesson in living. That is why my music sings of disappointment as well as of hope and joy, for these feelings belong to the human condition." (Jean-Henri Blumen)