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The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir

★★★★

Jacksons Lane

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The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir

The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir

Jacksons Lane

Reviewed – 23 September 2019

★★★★

 

“a truly unique telling of a heart-breaking Holocaust story”

 

As the audience enters the theatre, a woman in a red dress sits on a stool facing away brushing her hair, apparently preparing for her performance. But was it for our performance of The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir, or for the character’s show within the story? This play, based on real-life events and directed by Shoshana Bass, explores the story of Irene Danner-Storm, a half-Jew born into a family of circus performers, who at the age of eighteen upon witnessing injustice to Jews in her home town decides to join a touring circus to escape. The circus, full of society’s “others”, becomes a second family to her. Irene’s Jewish identity is second to her performance abilities, and the circus master Adolph Althoff makes a pledge to protect her from the Nazis in Germany.

However, not only is the character of Irene an adept performer, but the actress and writer of the play, Stav Meishar, is also talented in many different forms of performance art. She also has the task of being the only performer in this one-woman show, where mostly all the other characters are acted out by Meishar in a variety of ways. The performer brings beautifully carved puppets (Valerie Meiss) to life as her fellow circus performers, where their camaraderie through their changing world becomes evident. Comedic moments in the first half of the play are not overly funny but light and respectful due to the overall subject manner, although slightly more humour could provide a greater contrast between events that are happier and those that are heart-breaking. Irene’s family is presented in a battered suitcase that transforms into a quaint dolls house, where the family members are constructed from printed wooden illustrations. These moments between Irene and her family are touching, and the events and persecution they face truly hit home. There are also some occasions where characters played on stage talk to pre-recorded voices of Nazi officers and other characters. These may have come across better if played out by the performer, although the separation of the Nazi characters into disembodied voices does highlight a difference in their humanity.

The play reaches its emotional peak in the second half, where Meishar takes to the trapeze as Irene lives out the horrors surrounding her. Irene’s anguish is stunningly balanced with the Meishar’s swinging and tumbling, producing a strikingly beautiful piece of acrobatic theatre. Meishar’s acting also reaches a peak in these moments and her performance as a confident yet vulnerable young woman is completely believable. The lone swinging of the character on the trapeze, lit simply by a single white light, emphasises her helplessness and emotional isolation.

Irene’s story, however, is not the only one to be told throughout the play. Meishar’s own personal family history is also delved into throughout the performance as her grandparents were personally affected by the Holocaust and sent to concentration camps. The parallels and differences between the family history and performance art background of the performer and character become apparent throughout. Moments where Meishar breaks the fourth wall to talk about her own background do not feel forced and provide additional context to the play, and her own emotional outpouring feels completely real.

This powerful telling of a young woman’s escape from Nazi Germany is emotionally and respectfully presented in an inventive blend of theatre and circus. Parallels between the performer’s own family history and the character’s make this a truly unique telling of a heart-breaking Holocaust story.

 

Reviewed by Philip Coatsworth

Photography by Gaia Putrino 

 


The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir

Jacksons Lane until 24th September

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads | ★★★ | March 2018
La Traviata | ★★★★ | May 2018
Intronauts | ★★★½ | January 2019
Macbeth | ★★★½ | March 2019

 

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Like Animals

Like Animals

★★★

Summerhall Old Lab

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Like Animals

Like Animals

Summerhall Old Lab

Reviewed – 11th August 2019

★★★

 

“in a play about communication, its message at times became unclear”

 

Can humans and animals have conversations? If something is forced to speak, does what they then say hold meaning? At what point does communication fail?

These are all questions that were posed in the innovative two-hander ‘Like Animals’. The piece was created and performed by the real life couple Pete Lannon and Kim Donohoe. The performance intertwined snippets of them talking about their relationship, with true case studies of animal experiments. The examples used were of Irene Pepperberg who taught her parrot, Alex, over 250 words, and Margaret Howe Lovatt who tried to make Peter, a dolphin, speak. While these events occurred over fifty years ago, the questions raised still have relevance. Lannon and Donohoe multi role as themselves and the animals and their trainers. This was made clear through distinctions in body language, voice and simple stylistic choices such as a sprinkle of feathers to symbolise the parrot and a splash of water to the face to portray the dolphin. This had the effect of making the line between human and non-human appear fine as we watched the actors go in and out of character.

The lighting (Benny Goodman) and sound (Michael John McCarthy) was consistently used to good effect throughout. The lighting was intricate, switching between disco colours and precise spotlights to create different atmospheres. Additionally, music and animal sound effects made the audience feel as if they were underwater or in a cage.

The play worked on a kind of parallel structure, flitting between the lives of the animals and the actors. Often lines that were said to the animals in training such as to say the phrase ‘better’, were also used between the couple. A poignant example of this was when Lannon said ‘I love you’ and was asked repeatedly to ‘do better’. This became uncomfortable to watch when applied to humans, highlighting the double standard between how we treat animals in comparison to others.

While the message of the piece was at some points clear, at others it became murky and confused. The direction (Ellie Dubois) used a lot of long pauses and had the actors break the fourth wall. The most obvious use of this was in the line ‘shall we move on to the next bit now’. This constant referencing to the play itself became forced and self-indulgent. The really interesting part of the narrative – what happened to the animals themselves – was skimmed over in favour of an abstract explorations of the real couple’s relationship. I left wishing to know more about the experiments themselves, but instead the play assumed that this was common knowledge.

This show raised important questions about inter-species connections. In an age where we are more conscious of our impact on the planet, this play analysed our need to connect with each other and our world. Ironically, in a play about communication, its message at times became unclear. At the end, perhaps style overtook content, and a more straightforward delivery might have resulted in a stronger message.

 

Reviewed by Emily Morris

Photography by Mihaela Bhodlovic

 


Like Animals

Summerhall Old Lab until 25th August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

 

 

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