The first title Clifford Odets chose for the new play he wrote mid-depression in 1935 was “I Got the Blues.” But he decided to adopt the optimistic approach of one of the main characters and renamed it Awake and Sing! - a direct quote from a quizzical line in today’s chapter of Isaiah’s visions. Odets brought Isaiah’s reference to resurrection to the Bronx and to the Jewish Berger family, struggling with finances and trying to make sense of their lives in tensions between idealism and realism. It’s the restless son Ralph, encouraged by his socialist grandfather, who yearns to escape the airless domestic atmosphere and echoes the prophet’s call:
Awake and Sing! Isaiah meets the Bergers
Awake and Sing! Isaiah meets the Bergers
Awake and Sing! Isaiah meets the Bergers
The first title Clifford Odets chose for the new play he wrote mid-depression in 1935 was “I Got the Blues.” But he decided to adopt the optimistic approach of one of the main characters and renamed it Awake and Sing! - a direct quote from a quizzical line in today’s chapter of Isaiah’s visions. Odets brought Isaiah’s reference to resurrection to the Bronx and to the Jewish Berger family, struggling with finances and trying to make sense of their lives in tensions between idealism and realism. It’s the restless son Ralph, encouraged by his socialist grandfather, who yearns to escape the airless domestic atmosphere and echoes the prophet’s call: