The Company. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

 

Amid Falling Walls

 

By Julia Polinsky

 

 

The Holocaust. Hardly are those words out, when they evoke the mental image: black and white photos of people passively lined up to get on to boxcars; living skeletons; ghettos as filthy and unwelcoming as prisons; concentration camps, chimneys belching appalling smoke; barbed wire and gunshots. Not music, poetry, dance. Unthinkable.

Unthinkable? Think again. The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, in itself a national treasure, offers us Amid Falling Walls (in Yiddish, Tvishn Falndike Vent), a musical assemblage of the songs and poetry written by Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. The show's title comes from the Partisan Hymn, the anthem of Jewish resistance fighters.

Jewish life during the Holocaust pulsed with vibrant creativity. The ghettos had clandestine cabarets, where they performed songs of love, humor, joy - sometimes quite cynical - to an audience of people with money. The music was not limited to ghetto life, though; these songs were sung and performed in partisan encampments and concentration camps, hard as that may be to believe.

The creators of Amid Falling Walls, rabbi and cantor Avram Mlotek and the remarkable musician, Zalman Mlotek (who also arranged the music) make extensive use of Shmerke Kaczerginski's Lider Fun Di Getos un Lagern (Songs of the Ghettos and Camps), as well as other sources. Songs are sung in Yiddish; if that's not one of your languages, there are supertitles in English and Russian above the stage - it's easy enough to follow the singers.

The Company. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Directed by Matthew "Motel" Didner, the marvelous cast members of Amid Falling Walls -- Jacob Ben-Shmuel, Yael Eden Chanukov, Abby Goldfarb, Eli Mayer, Daniella Rabbani, Steven Skybell, Mikhl Yashinsky, and Rachel Zatkoff -- present a full-throated picture of survival, strength, resistance.

And, incredibly, hope. Sure, there are many agonized weepers - in one devastating song, a mother sings of giving up her child to a non-Jewish family to save his life - but there are also vaudeville-like boy-girl silly romance numbers, deeply defiant songs of resistance sung by partisans, and, at the end, the hopeful, lovely "Mir Leben Eybik!"/"We Live Forever", a poignant reminder that Jews have survived thousands of years, and will be forever alive.

Before the show begins, the stage offers a video montage (projection design by Brad Peterson) of European Jewish life before the advent of the Nazis and WWII. During the show, more photos appear on screens at either side of the house, adding depth to the songs. The excellent orchestra, directed by Zalman Mlotek, sits above and to the rear of the stage, behind a nearly see-through fringe curtain. Tamar Rogoff choreographed the dances, which range from cabaret-like performances to the circle dances so often associated with Jewish folk music. Costumes by Izzy Fields evoke Mittel Europa, mid-20^th century precisely; it's often as if some of the projected photos walk on stage and sing.

The Company. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

As the song says, "Dos folk zingt eybik" - Our people sing eternally. Go see Amid Falling Walls and hear for yourself.

 

Amid Falling Walls (Tsvishn Falndike Vent): Unveiling Resilience and Hope During the Holocaust

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene

Museum of Jewish Heritage, 

36 Battery Place

80 minutes, no intermission

Through December 10

Tickets: ($68-$125) visit NYTF