Sima and EG: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman

Theater for the New City

155 First Avenue New York, NY 10009

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Sima is the attempted adoption of a poor Jewish girl who has been orphaned by a pogrom in 1905 Ukraine. A wealthy couple, Yakov and Regina Krasovitsky, visit an orphanage for children left parentless by pogroms. A little girl named Sima seems to recognize Regina as her mother and rushes to embrace her before realizing her mistake. The couple, touched, adopt the girl. She, however, has escaped one trauma only to enter another: a household on edge, barely capable of caring for her. She breaks a statue and becomes increasingly distressed. The household has its own tensions: Yakov fears repercussions of a strike at his factory. Regina appeals to wealthy friends to adopt other children, but her friends dismiss her, fearing the kids will be mistaken for their own illegitimate offspring. The couple’s Ukrainian maid, Manya, grieving over the death of her own child from malnutrition, resents the adopted girl. Their anguishes are a canvas in which one small girl mirrors an entire society’s failures–and its fleeting moments of grace.

As Regina and Yakov weigh returning the child to the orphanage, Sima wakes from a nightmare. Manya enters the room in anger and is unexpectedly softened by the child’s fear. She takes Sima in her arms and sings her back to sleep, suggesting that kindness comes not from wealth or good intentions, but from those who have known suffering themselves.

Set in 1933, “E.G.” is a music-theater biography of the legendary Russian Jewish American Anarchist Emma Goldman. She defends her life as an anarchist, activist, and revolutionary thinker as she attempts to re-enter the America that had deported her in 1919. The piece combines musical numbers, spoken monologues, melodrama, historical photos, and audience interaction to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of Goldman’s life, ideals, and struggles. Caryn Hartglass plays Emma Goldman. Piano accompaniment is by composer Leonard Lehrman, who also portrays all the men in Emma’s life. These include the artist Modest Stein, the roustabout Ben Reitman, and especially Alexander Berkman (“Sasha”), a leader of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century who was famous for his political activism and writing. In the opera, he is a confidant and chorus who frames the narrative and provides a counterpoint to Emma’s voice. Visuals include 266 projections and a newsreel, all operated by Janet Kalish.

“E.G.” celebrates the life of a woman who dared to defy authority, insist on justice, and assert that love, art, and anarchism could coexist–leaving audiences to consider what it means to live and fight for one’s convictions. Musical passages serve both narrative and ideological purposes, dramatizing philosophical debates and historical events. Audience interaction and repetition of chants reinforce Goldman’s enduring message about anarchism, resistance, reproductive freedom and social responsibility.