Two tickets to the New Worlds Theatre Project (Ellen Perecman, Producing Artistic Director) world premiere of David Pinski’s comic tragedy, Professor Brenner, which appears to have had no previous production. The reason may have been Pinski’s frankness about sexual relations and the controversial nature of the subject matter for the Yiddish–speaking community.

David Pinski broke Yiddish theatrical tradition in the early 20th century by writing about sexual passion—one of the themes of Professor Brenner—with a frankness previously unknown to Yiddish literature.  And with Professor Brenner (1911) he portrays a relationship considered socially taboo as a matter of emotional fascination: a relationship between an older man and a much younger woman outside the convention of an arranged marriage.

In Professor Brenner, 61-year-old Professor Arthur Brenner, a renowned painter and professor of painting, lives with his elderly mother.  Socially awkward and pathologically indecisive, he has dedicated his life exclusively to the pursuit of his career, so his existence is shaken to its core when he meets an adoring young woman forty years his junior.  He is convinced that he has found love for the first time.  But, then again, he’s not so sure.  And neither is his mother.