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-20th
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