Swimmer, swimmer in the sea, bring my body back to me

[sovay]

Three separate people have now sent me links to this photoset, but since it documents the transformation of a black dress, a replica of the costume worn by Hanna Rovina when she played Leye in An-sky's The Dybbuk (1920), suspended for three months in the thick salt waters of the Dead Sea until it emerged stiff and glittering, salt-crusted wedding-white as a spirit gathering flesh to itself, grief transformed into union, I don't think any of them were wrong: Sigalit Landau, "Salt Bride."

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This is magic at work--here's the sea change into something rich and strange--here is garment encrusted with gems that will melt away in the first rain.

(Gorgeous. I'd seen it a few places too)

[sovay]

--here is garment encrusted with gems that will melt away in the first rain.

Prrt.

The museum's description—like many of the characters in the play, until it's too late—mistakes the dybbuk of Khonen for an evil spirit, but I really like this line: "Over time, the sea's alchemy transforms the plain garment from a symbol associated with death and madness into the wedding dress it was always intended to be." Also, I was guessing at Hanna Rovina because she was so famously associated with the role, and I feel vindicated on being right. (The world premiere, in Yiddish, was Miriam Orelska.)