Tezza's Theatre Place

The Holocaust has been a major source of material for books, films, television programmes etc. Most of these tend to concentrate on the horrors of the death camps or the ghettos. But not all of the Nazi’s victims were sent straight to these places and some were interred in transit camps such as Westerbork which is the setting for Ian Buckley’s play  The Project  receiving its world premiere at the White Bear Theatre. At this camp, things are slightly better for the inmates. As well as reasonable housing – a far higher standard than in the ghettos – there is a school, hairdresser, and even restaurants for the occupants to use. Conditions may not be perfect but, under the command of SS Officer Conrad Schaffer (Mike Duran), life is bearable most of the time. It certainly is for the performers of the camp cabaret. While they have to wear the Jewish star on their clothing, at least it is their own clothes and not the striped pajamas worn in other parts of the Reich. The leader ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196133/a-serious-play-about-world-war-ii-vault-festival/ When you have won every comedy award possible, what else is a production company to do? Well, in the case of Willis & Vere, who did so well last year at the Vault Festival with their show  The Starship Osiris , the next challenge was to move from comedy to drama. So this year, they have brought their new show  A Serious Play About World War II  to the Vault and I was lucky enough to get to see it. This is no ordinary production. It begins with Ian Fleming (no relation I think) playing some mournful music on a violin. The music sounds like it is Jewish in origin and the reason for that becomes clear when George Vere and Adam Willis come on to the stage to talk about this project. George and Adam have carried out a lot of research before writing their show which tells the story of holocaust survivor Hirshel Günzberg. A Jewish boy was taken to Auschwitz when he was ju...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/173595/review-the-investigation-the-bread-and-roses-theatre/ You probably know that following the end of the Second World War, the victorious allies prosecuted senior members of the Nazi hierarchy in a series of trials at the Nazi Party’s spiritual home in Nuremberg. What you may not know is that in the 1960s there were more war crime trials – specifically around events that happened in Auschwitz – and these form the basis of Peter Weiss’ new play  The Investigation  which I saw at the Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham. There didn’t appear to be a plot as such to this production and, I have to admit, I was a little sceptical of where it was going after the opening sequence. Whilst I do not necessarily think that Donald Trump and Theresa May are the best leaders of their respective country, I’m not sure that lumping them in with Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, and Adolph Hitler was entirely appropriate or relevant. However, once this openin...