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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 05 July 2000 |
Kindertransport by Diane Samuels
Diane Samuels' Kindertransport is set both in the past and the present - they are inextricably intertwined. Eva came to England from Germany in 1939 as part of the Kindertransport; this is the story of her survival and her future.
Diane Samuels
Born in Liverpool in 1960, Diane Samuels trained as a drama teacher after reading History at Cambridge. She gave up teaching to write full time, and her work includes The Life and Death of Bessie Smith, Turncoat and How To Beat A Giant. She has written a lot of work for radio including an adaptation of Kindertransport.
"...Three incidents led me to write Kindertransport. The first was a discussion with a close friend, in her late twenties and born into a comfortable, secure home, who described her struggle to deal with the guilt of survival. Her father had been on the Kindertransport and I was struck at how her parent's feelings had been passed down so fully to her. The second was the experience of another friend who, at her father's funeral, overheard her mother recalling her time in Auschwitz. Until that moment she had no idea that her mother had been in a concentration camp. The third was the ashamed admission by a 55 year old woman on a television documentary about the Kindertransport, that the feeling she felt most strongly towards her dead parents was rage at their abandonment of her. What is the cost of survival? What future grows out of a traumatised past?..."
Kindertransport was first performed by the Soho Company at the Cockpit Theatre, London on April 13th 1993 and by Edward's Theatre Company at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Kindertranport - A Brief History
Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany in 1933, and as the Nazi party took bold, anti-semitic activities were encouraged and their incidence greatly increased. The night of November the 9th, 1938 saw the intensification of the Nazi persecution, as synagogues, homes and businesses were destroyed and Jews beaten and humiliated. The 'Night of the Broken Glass' (Krystallnacht), prompted an appeal from the British Jewish Refugee Committee to the House of Commons. It was agreed that a number of children, aged between 5 and 17, were to be allowed into Britain, upon the condition that there would be a £50 bond levied for each child.
From December 1938 until September the 3rd 1939, almost 10,000 children travelled by train to Britain, to be cared for by foster families, orphanages or group homes. The larger part of the children were well treated, though some encountered abuse from their hosts. Most of the children never saw their parents again.
"...I sat in a packed compartment of children of mixed ages. Uniformed men kept entering our compartment, but the journey was uneventful until we reached the Dutch border when there was singing and jubilation. We were then shepherded aboard a boat at the Hook of Holland bound for Harwich, arriving the following morning. We were shown into a shed where we were all handed hard-boiled eggs and sandwiches. Some of the older boys prayed - I was ten years old and did not know how to pray, nor quite understand why..." - Sigi Faith.
CAST
Evelyn - Zoë Hall
Faith - Charlotte Steel
Eva - Katy Poulsom
Helga - Beth Stratford
Lil - Becci Vessey
The Ratcatcher - Maxim Griffin
Border Official & Station Guard - Georgie Ichikawa
English Organiser & Postman - Graeme Ellis
CREW
Director - Carole Ashcroft
Stage Manager - Keith Ellis
Deputy Stage Managers - Ceri Ashcroft, Helen Gardner
Assistant Stage Managers - Jenny Cook, Lindsay Gardner, Claire Malyon
Wardrobe - Jody Newton
Touring Technician - Robert Ashcroft
Design - Ceri Ashcroft, Graeme Ellis, Maxim griffin, Alan lowes, Becci Vessey
Language Advisor - Jill Wilson
Music Composed and Arranged by - Lindsay Gardner |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 May 2007 )
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