Natalie O'Hara plays over 20 roles in this one-person play with piano about the pianist Alice Herz-Sommer and her survival as a Jewish musician in the Theresienstadt ghetto - and live piano from Bach to Gershwin, from Chopin etudes to Beethoven sonatas. It is a true story about the power of music as an emotional theatrical experience.
Alice Herz-Sommer (1903-2014) became famous at an advanced age when her biography "A Garden of Eden in the Midst of Hell" and several documentaries about her enjoyed international success. Her optimism and love of humanity, which she retained despite her difficult fate, moved and inspired people for a long time. The idea for a play was born, which on the one hand traces Alice's time in Theresienstadt, where she gives concerts and fights for survival with her 6-year-old son, and on the other hand brings to life the magic of music, which seems to have protected her from bitterness and despair. The discrepancy between the beauty of music and the horror of the ghetto is the theme of this evening, which is a piano concerto, biography and play all in one.
The research took two years. Author Kim Langner and Natalie O'Hara traveled to Prague, Theresienstadt and Tel Aviv to meet Alice's family, friends and former students. Eli Gornstein, Israeli actor and Herz-Sommer's grand-nephew: "It means a lot to me when German audiences engage with Alice Herz-Sommer through this play - this work celebrates the triumph of humanity and memorializes Alice's optimistic personality, while shedding light on the tragedy of European Jews during this time."
- Further information on the theater program can be found at www.idar-oberstein.de/kultur. Tickets are available at www.ticket-regionale.de and at the affiliated advance booking offices.