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GHETTO


A play by Joshua Sobol, in a version by David Lan with lyrics and music by inhabitants of the Vilna Ghetto, translated and arranged by Jeremy Sams

Olivier Theatre National Theatre London
Previewed 19 April 1989
Opened 27 April 1989
Closed 9 November 1989
Played in repertory

Ghetto is the story of the Vilna ghetto theatre, during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. Written by the Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol, Ghetto was inspired by an actual historical theatre which operated in the Jewish ghetto from 1941 until 1943. Despite the protests claiming "No theatre in a graveyard," the Vilna Ghetto theatre responded to despair with song, satire, and - amazingly - criticism of the Nazi regime, proving that theatre can provide courage and hope even amidst atrocity.


Maria on Ghetto

"It was after Ghetto that I decided I was passionate about what I did and that I didn't want to do anything else. Up until then I had loved what I did and always took it seriously... I met Nick Hytner (the director) and I suddenly felt that being an actor wasn't just singing, dancing and entertaining, that you could really communicate something to people. It is too huge a thing to say that it can change people's lives because it doesn't. But it enhances them, makes people think. I felt that I could be involved in something that was testing and demanding, both for myself and, hopefully, the audience." [read full interview]


Cast
SrulikJONATHAN CULLEN
Kittel/ Dr PaulALEX JENNINGS
HayyahMARIA FRIEDMAN
Djigan, the dummyLINDA KERR SCOTT
GensJOHN WOODVINE
WeiskopfANTHONY O'DONNELL
Kruk/
Sasha Molevsky
IVAN KAYE
  
Yosef GersteinDAVID SCHNEIDER
Judith AzraNICOLA SCOTT
Oomah OrshevskayaANGELA PLEASENCE
Yitshok ElmisJON RUMNEY
Avrom BliakherNICOLAS BLANE
Luba GrodzenskiLAURA SHAVIN
Elia Geivish/
Jewish Police Officer
MARK LOCKYER
Yitzhok Geivish/
Jewish Police Officer
GLYN PRITCHARD
Yankel Polikanski/
Jewish Police Officer
MARK ADDY
Alexander GertnerJO STONE-FEWINGS
Shabse GottlibSANDY BURNETT
Sonia GrudberySANDRA BUTTERWORTH
HaikinVLADIMIR ASRIEV
Yakob IrisGED McKENNA
Helena LaresJILL STANFORD
Yitzhok Lipovsk/
Jewish Police Officer
JOHN FITZGERALD JAY
Shmuel MandelblitOLIVER BEAMISH
Nemi NadirJUDITH SIM
Baruch Natan/
Jewish Police Officer
TREVOR SELLERS
Yakob NemiMICHAEL O'CONNOR
Moishe NorvidMERLIN SHEPHERD
Leah RudkovJENNIFER HILL
Zigmund SambergDAVID ROACH
Henry TaytlboymKEITH WOODHAMS
Avrom ValterBRIAN GREENE
Avrom WittenbergTAM DEAN BURN
Polia Wittenberg/
Jewish Police Officer
CHRISTOPHER ARMSTRONG
Gestapo Guard/
Jewish Police Officer
MELVYN BEDFORD
Gestapo GuardTOBY E BYRNE
Gestapo GuardCIARAN McINTYRE

Production Team
DirectorNicholas Hytner
DesignsBob Crowley
LightingDavid Hersey
ChoreographyJane Gibson
Musical DirectorSandy Burnett
SoundRichard Borkum

Songs
Unter dayne vayse shtern
(In the Sky the Stars All Glisten)
Music and Lyrics by Brodno and Sutzkever
Hot zikh mir di shikh tserisn
(Someone Stole My Overcoat)
Vilna Ghetto Song
Vey tsu di teg
(A Curse on the Day)
Music and Lyrics by M Veksler and Katriel Broide
Yidishe brigades
(Yiddish brigades)
Vilna Ghetto Song
IsrulikMusic and Lyrics by M Veksler and L Rosenthal
Friling
(Springtime)
Music and Lyrics by A Brodno and S Katcherginski
Mir lebn eybik
(We'll Live Forever)
Music and Lyrics by traditional and L Rosenthal
Zog nit keynmol
(Never Say...)
Music and Lyrics by Jewish Partisan Song and H Glik
All songs translated and arranged by Jeremy Sams

Pictures

Notes

On the opening night of Ghetto, Friedman's father sent her a telegram. It read: "Your grandparents love you and thank you for keeping their spirit alive." Her grandmother had been born in Vilnius.


Quotes From The Press

"... Maria Friedman as Hayyah, has a sweet, caressing voice that is heart-breaking in its plaintive melodic appeal..." Milton Shulman, The London Evening Standard (28 April 1989)

"...Just to see that remarkable actress-singer Maria Friedman being forced to gratify her persecutor's desire to hear decadent American jazz by singing 'Swanee' is itself a sermon on the survival of human dignity. Miss Friedman turns it into a defiant anthem for dispossessed aliens everywhere. And when the ragged company end their elaborately-choreographed routine, the effect is os heroic, so heart-breaking, it seems an impertinence to applaud..." Jack Tinker, The Daily Mail (28 April 1989)

"...The nostalgic songs hauntingly sung by Maria Friedman..." Paul Taylor, The Independent (29 April 1989)

"...Ghetto consists of a series of short scenes intersperesed with songs, beautifully performed by the huge company with the frail-looking Maria Freidman as a powerfully eloquent solost. They are haunting, heart-wrenching numbers, sometimes sad, sometimes expressing a fierce pride and joy in Jewish culture. They seem still more poignant when one remembers that they were actually written by the real-life inhabitants of the Vilna ghetto..." Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph (29 April 1989)

"...Nicholas Hytner's remarkable production enters the very soul of a people whose inspiring and courageous will to survive is movingly encapsulated in Maria Friedman's heart-wrenching performances as Hayyah, the singer..." Clive Hirschhorn, The Sunday Express (30 April 1989)

"...Jeremy Sams has arranged the words and music of songs written in the ghettos of Vilna and elsewhere, which emerge, particularly in Friedman's soft, grainy and expressive soprano, with marvellous simplicity and power. No amplification, but the real, fragile, indestructable thing... Jennings and Friedman head a large, excellent company with superlative assurance." Michael Ratcliffe, The Observer (30 April 1989)

"...There are memorable performanes from Maria Friedman, Alex Jennings, John Woodvine and Linda Kerr Scott, among others..." Kenneth Hurren, The Mail on Sunday (30 April 1989)


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