Welcome to Goldstone Gallery

The Gilgul
A one-man performance by Dr Myer Taub
Sunday 26 July, 6.00pm
Doors open at 5.30pm | Performance starts promptly at 6.00pm

Dear Friends, Goldstone Gallery is opening its doors once again for a special one-night-only performance by acclaimed South African playwright, performer and theatre scholar Dr Myer Taub. An award-winning artist and Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Dr Taub is internationally recognised for his innovative work at the intersection of theatre, performance, storytelling and research. He is currently in Melbourne as an invited participant in the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) World Congress at the University of Melbourne, where leading theatre-makers and scholars from around the world have gathered to explore this year's theme, What Theatre Does.

For this special occasion, Dr Taub will perform The Gilgul, a remarkable one-man play adapted from a little-known Yiddish story by A. B. Gotlober (1811–1899). Performed in the intimate setting of Goldstone Gallery, the work blends theatre, storytelling, Jewish mysticism and dark comedy into a haunting and unforgettable experience.

Set in the preparation room of a Jewish burial society, the play follows a burial society worker who encounters a Gilgul, a wandering soul trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation. As the spirit relives its extraordinary past lives as a singer, horse, cantor, fish, dog, critic, doctor, moneylender and more, it reveals a deeply human tale of greed, ambition, love, loss and redemption, gradually drawing the living man into its own journey. Rich with humour, folklore and profound insight, The Gilgul is a moving allegory about resilience, morality and what it means to be human. 

This is a rare opportunity to experience Dr Taub's extraordinary performance in an intimate gallery setting, exclusively at Goldstone Gallery, for one night only.

It feels especially fitting that Goldstone is reopening its doors to present The Gilgul. Throughout history, artists have turned to death not simply as an ending, but as a way of understanding life itself. That has become one of the defining threads of Goldstone's journey, and of my own artistic practice, which has always been inseparable from the gallery.

From This is Navalny, presented on the first anniversary of Alexei Navalny's murder, to the first posthumous exhibition of the remarkable Holocaust survivor and painter Olga Horak OAM, from our major exhibition October 7: Atrocity, Antisemitism and Resilience to Ramak Bamzar's The Body as Revolution, Goldstone has explored death, loss, memory and survival not as acts of despair, but as a profound search for the meaning of life itself, affirming the enduring human capacity to bear witness, to remember, to create and to hope.

Although Goldstone has suspended its exhibition program for now, I couldn't imagine a more meaningful reason to reopen than this extraordinary performance.  The Gilgul tells the story of death not as an ending, but as a journey of reincarnation, transformation and storytelling. In many ways, it feels like Goldstone's own story. The gallery has not died. It has not disappeared. It is simply preparing for its next incarnation.

I hope you'll join us for this very special evening. Tickets are limited. 

More than anything, I miss our community, and I would love to see you all again.

Warmly,

Nina Sanadze
Artistic Director, Goldstone Gallery