The YICHUD Room: Performing Jewish spaces

"The YICHUDRoom: Performing Jewish Spaces" explores the similarities between theatrical and ritual practices as exemplified in the Theatre Passe Muraille/Convergence Theatre production of YICHUD (Seclusion) by Julie Tepperman. The efficacy of both ritual and theatre lie in the strength and specificity of the intention(s) they communicate to their participants/ audience, and the way in which they sanctify or sacralise space. YICHUD (Seclusion) offers a particularly interesting example of how ritual and theatre dovetail with each other as the play itself is set in the religiously observant world of orthodox Judaism. An examination of this play in performance, a play centred on Jewish wedding rituals, demonstrates the creation of a highly charged atmosphere that immerses the audience in an event that is religiously authentic and dramatically truthful.