YIZKOR

The Theatre on the Steps in conjunction with the New Vic Theatre

presents

YIZKOR

Developed with the support of the

Imperial War Museum Fellowship in Holocaust Education

WEDNESDAY 3rd FEBRUARY AT 10am 2pm AND 7pm

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES FOR SCHOOLS - FOR FULL DETAILS CALL OUR BOX OFFICE ON 01746 766477

‘accurate, moving, engaging and relevant’

Ruth-Anne Lenga Institute of Education

Head of the Academic Programme for the

Holocaust Education Development Programme

YIZKOR follows the experiences of two teenagers Ariella and Moshe between May 1939 and May 1944. The play has been written using witness and survivor testimonies of teenagers during the Holocaust, therefore every word that is heard is authentic and accurate. Throughout the play the voices of Ibi and Waldemar Ginsburg, two Holocaust survivors who worked with the New Vic over the last 8 years are heard. This brings a potent and moving reality to the play. Both Val and Ibi have died since the play was first performed, but their wish that their stories would continue to bear witness to future generations is still being realised.

The play is set in a Shtetl in Eastern Europe and allows audiences to gain an important insight into a way of life, a culture and religion that was wiped out as a result of the Holocaust. It helps us to understand the human story behind the unfathomable facts and figures, and the way that ordinary people’s lives are affected by discrimination and racial hatred.

“This stunning production set in an age of persecution and intolerance has a message of survival and courage which will resonate with young and old alike” John Fisher Jewish Telegraph

The play was developed as part of the IWM Holocaust Fellowship programme, and inspired by Yehuda Bauer's book 'The Death of the Shtetl' and gives an insight into a way of life that was lived throughout Europe and which was destroyed as a result of the Holocaust. The play has two teenage characters Ariella and Moshe, and the words of the play are constructed through the use of documentary resources, such as diaries, letters and poems, written by teenagers experiencing unfolding events in occupied Europe, during the period of 1939 up to 1944. The play as well as moving through these years, moves forward through the various Jewish festivals and rituals which would have been the mainstay of life in the Shtetl

.

Yizkor means remember, and in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust as people realized the extent of the devastation, many survivors from these communities quickly began to write YIZKOR books as a collective effort to remember and preserve the Jewish life that was destroyed. 

FOR  SCHOOL PERFORMANCES PLEASE CONTACT US ON 01746 766477  MATINEE SHOWS AT 10AM AND 2PM