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Picture
Orson Welles as Father Mapple in Moby Dick,
directed by John Huston, script by Huston and Ray Bradbury, 1956.

Alan Lost in Boston 
by Henrik Eger
​

Synopsis

An historical play, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inflammatory anti-Semitic sermon, Mark Twain’s impassioned defense of Judaism (“Concerning the Jews”), and the frightening but also entertaining experiences of Alan, a bright Jewish New York teenager in 1972, who falls asleep and  then wakes up in 1643, challenging a vindictive Puritan minister in Boston. This play is adapted from the essay by Alan Barman, M.D. (1957-2010), written during his high school days .

Characters

ALAN, an unusually quick-witted 16-year-old Jewish boy, short, energetic, handsome, dark-haired, looks older than he is, a sportsman, budding writer, and good student, who enjoys reading Mark Twain’s satirical writings, attends a high school in Queens, during the hippie heydays in the early 1970s, where he learns about the Puritans, the witch trials in Salem, and the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

MRS. STERN, Alan’s English teacher—an old-fashioned, rigid, elderly woman, always prim and proper—has hammered many facts about the Puritans and Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter into the heads of her students. She scolds Alan for his swearing and dissuades him from reading Mark Twain, whose literary quality she considers inferior. 

PURITAN MINISTER in Boston, an older, diabolical, anti-Semitic man, unwilling to let go of his prejudice, no matter how deeply he gets challenged in his own church by Alan in 1643.

Excerpt

ALAN (louder): Sir, sir. . . I am . . . I am . . .
MINISTER (high on his crusade against Jews, not wanting to be interrupted): And yet his manners and aspect, in spite of all, were those of a man of the world, and a gentleman.  Well, it is as hard to give an idea of this ugly Jew as of the beautiful Jewess. . . . I rejoiced exceedingly in this Shylock, this Iscariot; for the sight of him justified me in the repugnance I have always felt towards his race.
ALAN (jumps up and shouts at the top of his lungs): Sir, with all due respect . . . I am . . . a Jew (sits down, almost frightened by his own audacity).
If you are interested in producing or adapting this copyrighted play, please contact the playwright. 

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​Click below for a translation into your own language 
from Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, and  Azerbaijani to Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, and  Zulu—​thanks to the latest version of Google Translate.
Picture
Tower Of Babel
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563).
Click here to contact the Editor
Copyright Henrik Eger, 2014-2020.
Update: December 30, 2020.
All images are credited to the best of our knowledge. We believe known sources should  be shown and great work promoted. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us, and we will check it right away. 
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