Though the setting itself is fictional, and the play's notes indicate that it "should be performed as a tragic farce",[2] he based the story on events he witnessed first-hand as a teenager in Auschwitz.
Witnesses were heard, evidence was gathered, conclusions were drawn, all of which issued finally in a unanimous verdict: the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, was found guilty of crimes against creation and humankind.
[5]To "The Jewish Chronicle", Wiesel gave a somewhat different description of the event, mentioning in the end that the term used in the sentence was chayav, "he owes us something", rather than ‘guilty'.
Purim calls for masks, feasting, drinking, noisemakers, and the creative re-telling of the Esther victory with enthusiastic jeers at every mention of the character Haman.
There is a popularly cited line at Megilah 7b of the Talmud that it is Jewish duty to drink on Purim until one cannot distinguish between the phrases "cursed by Haman" and "blessed by Mordecai", which the character Mendel references in the second act of the play.
[8][9] The celebratory atmosphere of Purim is contrasted with the historical setting in Eastern Europe in 1649, shortly after a series of pogroms across the area that is now in modern-day Ukraine and Poland.
In 2008, Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers filed suit against God, seeking a "permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats".
As described by author Rosemary Horowitz in her novel, Elie Wiesel and the art of storytelling: Three wandering minstrels arrive at an inn in the city of Shamgorod on the eve of Purim, a holiday which is replete with disguises and secrets, and which commemorates the defeat of a genocidal plan against the Jewish people.
[15] It premiered in New York City for the first time as part of The UnConvention: An American Theater Festival, which was held during the 2004 Republican National Convention.
It also appeared in New York City on March 31, 2007 at the Makor Theatre and featured "traditional dancers from the Kalaniot Dance Troupe and Klezmer musicians from KlezMITron.