2002 : Kindertransport

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Kindertransport

by Diane Samuels

Tuesday 19th - 23rd November 2002.
Curtain up 7:30pm

Kindertransport

In 1938, around 10,000 Jewish children were brought to England from Europe to escape increasing persecution by the Nazis. Once in England, they were adopted and many became naturalized British preferring to forget their pasts and knowing that they would never see their parents again. Such a person is Evelyn, on whom the play centres. Now in her fifties and with a daughter (Faith) in her twenties, we learn her story with a series of dramatic flash-backs, from her leaving her parents in Germany through her journey to England and her adoption by her foster mother Lil, now in her eighties. Having renounced her past, she now finds herself at odds with her daughter who only discovers her mother's background during the course of the play.

From: The Southern Daily Echo
Date Published: Monday 25 November 2002
Review: Kindertransport, Plaza Theatre, Romsey
by Brendan McCusker

HAMPSHIRE theatregoers are extremely fortunate to have such a startlingly talented drama company as RAODS. Six skilled actors and a very creative production team presented Diane Samuels' moving play, based on the true story of Jewish children being forcibly repatriated from Germany to England in 1939 and their subsequent lives. Atmospheric music, sound effects and lighting, combined with evocative costumes and imaginative skylights, enabled the company to deliver a harrowing yet riveting narrative with impressive professionalism. Albie Minns' Nazi border official was chilling. Lynda Edwards as the distraught German mother and Beverley Siddle as her anglicised and confused adult daughter were both mesmeric in very demanding roles. As the haunted and terrified young Jewish girl, Kerry Butcher displayed maturity and control in both English and German. The tricky time-shifts between wartime, post-war and the present were directed seamlessly on the simple set. This show simmered and sparked with utter professionalism, from the performances to the programme design. Why bother travelling to London with such genuine and outstanding talent on your doorstep?

Director's notes by Ed Howson
Every new production that graces the Plaza stage is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for the company to present something new, something different, something controversial or perhaps something tried and trusted, an old favourite that the audience knows and loves. It is also an opportunity for the actors to work in a style they’re not experienced with, and with a director new to them, and perhaps for the technical team to rise to new challenges in terms of staging, effects and costumes. It may also give newcomers to the society their first opportunity to act, or give up-and-coming actors the chance to tackle larger and more demanding roles, and show other members of the society that we are not afraid to present as wide a range of theatre as we can. As a director, too, I particularly enjoy working with a cast comprising actors I have directed before and those new to me but whose work I have perhaps seen. This mix not only presents a range of challenges to the team, but also a whole host of surprisingly creative dynamics. New shows also present the opportunity to work with new technical support in the design of lighting, sound and staging. It is also an opportunity to educate the audience, to take them into a world new to them, to introduce them to new characters, places times and situations. As a director and designer, presenting my fifth show for RAODS in a little over 8 years, I look for all of these things when choosing a show, but above all, it is the play itself that is the key and the starting point. In the case of 'Kindertransport' I looked first of all for a type of production that I had never done before, a small cast modern drama. Next, not only was it an all-female cast (nearly!), but one with a wide range of ages and characters. The subject, too, was completely unknown to me, though I have been asked a number of times if its theme of the displacement of the Jews from their homeland attracted me because of its echoes of the story in my last production at The Plaza, 'Fiddler on the Roof'. But ultimately what drew me to 'Kindertransport' was its style, its dialogue and its theatricality. I consider it a wonderfully well-written, moving and accessible play, with expertly-drawn characters and not a word wasted; it is also a play that lends itself to being presented on a small stage in intimate surroundings but with great opportunity for creative staging and effects, particularly with its menacing Pied Piper of Hamlyn analogy. I hope, then, that you, the audience, will make the most of your opportunity this evening - to learn, to be moved, to use your imagination, but above all, to be fulfilled by your evening at The Plaza; and if you are, then it means that we have made the most of our opportunities to absorb you, to transport you and, in the truest sense of the word, to entertain you.