Review: Unique Merger of Two Family Stories (translated from Swedish)
LOVIISA: Last Friday, Circus Art show " The Escape Act - A Holocaust Memoir" was performed in the sports hall by Stav Meishar in collaboration with TransFolk Kucku 2018-19. The theater performance had its world premiere in Lovisa and was a wonderful mix of acting, trapeze, puppet theater, history and much more.
"The Escape Act - A Holocaust Memoir" is based on a true story of the Jewish family Lorch during the first and second part of the World Wars. In the play, Meishar plays the role of the Lorchs family's daughter Irene, fleeing the Jewish persecution to a circus. In the circus she feels for the first time that she can be herself, and later the story develops into an unacceptable love story between the Jewish Irene and a man in the circus. The other characters in the show are played by puppets, which turns the performance occasionally into a puppet theater.
Meishar is a Jew herself and has relatives who have been suffered the persecution in Europe. She weaves her relatives' history into the play and compares the two families. In addition, she shows video interviews with the Lorch family, making the show more realistic.
Overall, "The Escape Act - A Holocaust Memoir" offered a rollercoaster of emotions where the audience felt everything from joy to wonder, worry and sorrow. The audience got to listen to song, admire trapeze art and laugh.
After the performance, there was an opportunity for the audience to stay and ask questions of the actress and discuss the show. The atmosphere afterwards was rather heavy, as many difficult subjects had been processed and many in the audience were moved to tears and to standing ovations.
It was almost as if when the show was over, the connection between these families' tragic stories and the pride-week end in Loviisa was finally understood. During the discussion, one man said it like this: There is no difference if you are a Christian, a Jew or gay, the most important thing is that everyone can be themselves and be happy.
In photo: For seven years, Stav Meishar studied the family Lorch's story to be able to play the daughter Irene as good as possible and the recovered story as it happened.
- Review by Emilia Tallberg for Nya Östis, Thursday 11.7.2019
"The Escape Act - A Holocaust Memoir" is based on a true story of the Jewish family Lorch during the first and second part of the World Wars. In the play, Meishar plays the role of the Lorchs family's daughter Irene, fleeing the Jewish persecution to a circus. In the circus she feels for the first time that she can be herself, and later the story develops into an unacceptable love story between the Jewish Irene and a man in the circus. The other characters in the show are played by puppets, which turns the performance occasionally into a puppet theater.
Meishar is a Jew herself and has relatives who have been suffered the persecution in Europe. She weaves her relatives' history into the play and compares the two families. In addition, she shows video interviews with the Lorch family, making the show more realistic.
Overall, "The Escape Act - A Holocaust Memoir" offered a rollercoaster of emotions where the audience felt everything from joy to wonder, worry and sorrow. The audience got to listen to song, admire trapeze art and laugh.
After the performance, there was an opportunity for the audience to stay and ask questions of the actress and discuss the show. The atmosphere afterwards was rather heavy, as many difficult subjects had been processed and many in the audience were moved to tears and to standing ovations.
It was almost as if when the show was over, the connection between these families' tragic stories and the pride-week end in Loviisa was finally understood. During the discussion, one man said it like this: There is no difference if you are a Christian, a Jew or gay, the most important thing is that everyone can be themselves and be happy.
In photo: For seven years, Stav Meishar studied the family Lorch's story to be able to play the daughter Irene as good as possible and the recovered story as it happened.
- Review by Emilia Tallberg for Nya Östis, Thursday 11.7.2019
