When some heavenly machinery malfunctions, half a bag of foolish souls is dropped in the town of Chelm. They come to life and become obsessed with raising money to build a bathhouse for their shadows, who stubbornly lie in the dust all day long. After a number of moneymaking schemes are bungled, Heaven is forced to intervene in this comedy based on a Yiddish folktale.
A Story of Chelm premiered at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL in 1983.