Budzyn, Cambridge, MA, 6 May 2010
Budzyn, the Play
A tribute to Holocaust victims
Celebrating the World Day of prayer 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010, 8:00 P.M.
Sanders Theatre at Harvard University
45, Quincy Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Tickets: $12; students: $8
Ticket Reservations: 617-496-2222
This first-ever performance is being produced as a tribute to Holocaust victims and to mark the World Day of Prayer 2010, celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice. The production will feature survivors, performers, musicians and dancers featuring music composer Edwin Geist performed by The Irving Fine Society Singers & Ensemble.
“Budzyn” awakens our consciences to the question of theatrical representation dealing with religious identity. The story takes place at the Nazi controlled Budzyn labor camp in Poland, where the commander was well known for subjecting the prisoners to particularly cruel tortures and told as seen through the eyes of one of its survivors, Henry S. Newman,
The commander, knowing that the young Mr. Newman had studied dramatic arts in order to become a director, asks him to organize a small performance with the prisoners in order to entertain him. The catch, however, was that if the Commander didn't laugh, he would humilate Henry in front of the other prisoners before cutting his throat and assuring that he die in slow agony.
Visionary director Guila Clara Kessous uses all forms of art to transmit the testimony of this survivor while overcoming the simple reference to the Shoah by attacking the crucial question of theatrical representation.