by MYRA CHANIN **** Kindertransport was a rescue mission, organized anonymously by Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker, which initially saved the lives of 669 children, all under the age of 17, living in German-occupied counties on the eve of World War II. Winton did more than arrange safe passage to the UK for them, he also found homes for them and placed them with families with whom they could safely spend the duration of the war. The Brits ultimately took in 10,000 mostly Jewish child refugees. Kindertransport notables include two Nobel Laureates — physicist Walter Kohn and theoretical chemist Arno Penzias; British film director Karel Reisz, whose most successful film, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, starred Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons and celebrity sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport is a tuchis oifen tisch, warts and all dramatization of one child’s disrupted life based on many interviews with Kindertransportees.
First and foremost, the writing is simply gorgeous. Spare. Concise. Without one extra word and not a smidgeon of sentimentality. The unpretentious, crisp and simple scenes highlight the guilt and confusion of the five principal female characters and make their feelings palpable. They also allow you to empathize with each and every one, trapped in a different way in the necessarily complicated plot:
The Kindertransported Eva (Lindsey O’Neil), who may not have lived happily ever after; Lil (Joanne Marsic), the kind, nurturing British woman who took Eva in, loved her and ultimately adopted her; Helga (Nicole Perry), the loving, noble birth mother with whom Eva lived until she was nine and who re-appears after miraculously surviving Auschwitz, wanting Eva to come to America with her, only to learn that her Eva has become a British citizen and converted to Christianity and has become someone else’s daughter, now named Evelyn (Kris Coffelt), who has her own mother-daughter problems with her only child Faith (Jennifer Coe), who discovers relics of her mother’s history stored in the attic.
And then there’s the fly in the ointment, i.e., Eva favorite childhood story. The Ratcatcher (Joel Kolker), who was hired to and did save a city from being overrun by rats. In the version read to Eva by Helga, the good townspeople gratefully counted their blessings for his feats, except for one very wicked, ungrateful soul who would not count and for whom the Ratcatcher searched in vain and wished to punish. When he could not find the non-counter of blessings, the Ratcatcher took away the entire town’s happiness by luring all its children into an abyss. The awful subtext of this story is that ingratitude is the greatest sin. Mixed feelings about her salvation are the core of Eva/Evelyn’s existence.
The uprooted children who arrived in Britain were spared the horror of the death camps, but separated from their parents and a comfortable familiar world, had to deal with a different culture where they instead faced a very human mixture of kindness, indifference, occasional exploitation and the selflessness of ordinary people faced with needy children.
Eva initially writes and receives letters from her mother. She manages to get her parents a permit that will allow them to work in Britain as servants, but the day they are scheduled to arrive in London, they don’t show up.
Lil, her foster mother and Eva fall out when Eva skips her English lessons to canvass rich homeowners to give her parents jobs. Lil thinks this makes her seem desperate but Eva wants to help her mother keep her promise of she and Eva’s father being united with their only child again. As Eva and Lil connect with each other, Eva gradually loses her Jewish roots.
When the war ends, Helga finally arrives and learns about Eva’s status. Helga, heartbroken because Evelyn refuses to travel to New York with her, argues with Eva. After Helga leaves, Eva has an imaginary argument in which she proclaims Helga the Ratcatcher. So who can be the ingrate who won’t count her blessing? Not a cheery conclusion to carry around subconsciously for a lifetime. At the same time, Evelyn’s daughter Faith, who feels her mother is cold and distant, has uncovered her Mum’s secret past via letters between Eva/Evelyn and Helga and wants to know more, which is exactly what Mum doesn’t want to talk or think about. Gulp!
The current Curtain Call Playhouse production of Kindertransport at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, was well directed by Jerry Jenson and superbly performed by a world-class cast. Lindsay O’Neil, was outstanding, easily managing the transformation from German child to British teen. Each of the other performers was properly touching and splendidly irritating as the script required.
Three cheers also for all the men in this drama, each one played brilliantly by the versatile Joel Kolker who changed his outfits and altered his voice and posture in order to switch between the mean Border Guard, the fearsome Nazi official who terrified Eva before his non-Nazi self gave her a sweet, the kindly English Organizer who could not understand a word she said in German and vice versa, the British postman who did not deliver the mail Eva waited for and (gasp!) also supplied the shadow for the terrifying, long-nailed Ratcatcher!!
Also worthy of note is Jack Coffelt’s fluid attic set that functioned as Eva’s bedroom in Berlin, an outside bench and various spaces in Lil and Evelyn’s houses.
This excellent production of a moving play is well worth seeing.
DATES: Pompano Beach Cultural Center ~ 50 W. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach, FL
Friday, 3/2, 3/9, 3/16 & Saturday, 3/3, 3/10 & 3/17 @ 8pm, Saturday, 3/10 @ 2pm,
Sunday, 3/4, 3/11 & 3/18 @ 2pm
Sunrise Civic Center Theatre, 10610 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Sunrise, FL
Saturday, 3/24 @ 7pm & Sunday, 3/25 @ 2pm
TICKETS: $10-$30 (Pompano), $18 (Sunrise)
RESERVATIONS: https://ccpompano.org/event/kindertransport-by-diane-samuels/ – Pompano
http://sunrisefl.gov/index.aspx?page=548 – Sunrise
INFORMATION: www.curtaincallplayhouse.com
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