937 at the Atlantic Fringe Festival
937
Directed by Ken Schwartz.
Stage Managed by Cat MacKeigan
Stage Managed by Cat MacKeigan
Performed at the Atlantic Fringe Festival
Review by Martin Wallace
In the
mid-to-late 20th century, narrative art became largely fragmented,
symbolic. This was in large part a reaction to the horrors of WWII. Faced with
the reality of the Holocaust, how could we now trust the old tired narratives
of reason and civilization? How could we tell the truth about the suffering of
the Jewish people under the Nazi regime without cheapening it, turning it into
yet another cathartic story? How could we, in the now clichéd phrase,
“represent the unrepresentable”?
937 is the
number of Jewish refugees that fled the Nazi Regime in 1939 aboard the St.
Louis. The ship stopped at various ports (including, to our shame, Halifax) only
to be turned away, the refugees eventually sent back to Germany to suffer the
full brunt of Hitler’s Final Solution.
937, originally created at Two Planks and a Passion theatre, relays
this historical truth through the experience of a Jewish family. The story is
not told through dialogue (except for some music and a recording of Hitler
giving a speech, the play is silent) or contrived dramatic arcs. The actors
don’t play characters, but rather stand behind and manipulate suits of clothes
(taken, in an example of the play’s stark and precise symbolism, from a metal
travelling trunk). This choice makes the play at once specific
and universal; refused the comfort of historical distance, unable to distract
ourselves by focusing on an actor’s quirks, we’re there at the heart of things:
feeling the pang of a child’s aching disappointment through the drop of a sleeve,
a father’s stoic cheer in the twirling of a gloved finger, tragic absurdity in
the sight of a succession of flags being waved and then discarded. How is
rejection better conveyed than through a metal gate constantly moved to block
passage? Or pain, than by the drawing of a Star of David upon a coat?
This is, I want
to say, how it should be done.
Attend the
last Atlantic Fringe Festival performance of 937, today (Sept. 7) at 5pm.