30/01/2024
On Saturday 27th January I watched the Arden Youth Theatre’s production of Arbeit Macht Frei, written by Paul King and adapted and directed by Richard Andrews. The play focuses on the persecution of the Jews during WW2 and was performed by the oldest section of the Arden Youth Theatre. The cast performed the show three times during this Memorial Day. Entrance was free.
I witnessed an incredibly powerful, moving, and thought-provoking piece of theatre, the like of which I had never seen before. Performed with airtight focus, sensitivity, and confidence by a company of 20 young performers who remained on stage for the entire performance, I was gripped. So too the packed auditorium.
The audience received a gut-punch of a performance, most of which were in tears throughout. The decision to perform the play in ‘traverse’ with audience members placed either side of the space was a master stroke. Such staging increases intimacy for the audience and a complexity for the performers, who ably rose to the challenge.
There were many dramatic highlights. In particular, firstly, the poignant silence as the Jews in the death camps removed their clothes before being shut into the gas chambers.
Secondly, the human pyramid of panic, created by the company, as the Zyklon B gas was released into the shower block. Its victims desperately scrambling to find their way out, before slowly succumbing to the gas.
There were, of course, even moments of humour, masterfully sandwiched between the most harrowing moments, helping to drive that ‘gut punch’ even harder. One such moment included the ‘entertaining’ propaganda advert by the N***s promoting their ‘wonderful’ camps. Another was the smarmy N**i officer welcoming the Jews to the camp after their 5-day horrific journey welcoming them to a new holiday resort.
Silence in the piece was most powerful. The silent moment after a small child was shot by a N**i officer; the moment after the victims succumbed to the gas chamber, and profoundly, at the end of the play when the performers left the auditorium two by two.
I have never witnessed a piece of theatre, professional or otherwise, where the audience were left in a prolonged stunned silence! All that was left on stage was the pile of clothes once worn by the Jews. The audience were left to silently and personally recoil from the gut punch delivered by the Arden Youth Theatre. Bravo. Ben Jones
