Sixth@Penn Theatre’s Resilience of the Spirit Human Rights Festival 2007 has reached its 11th of 12 programs. A mixed bag of plays concerning human rights and human resilience, the series, truly a mixed bag ” at least the ones I’ve seen ” reached its highest point with the world premiere of Chicagoan Charmaine Spencer’s tender and heart-wrenching Holocaust play, “Fireflies,” which continues only through Sunday, Aug. 12. It is not to be missed.
The play is set in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia in 1943, a time when there were worldwide rumors about the Nazis’ mistreatment of their prisoners. Specifically, the International Red Cross sent a delegation to Terezin, which Hitler touted as his gift to the Jews, a city he had built for the Jews, a model of humane treatment, education and arts training.
The community was forced to support this propaganda by presenting the Czech children’s opera “Brundibar” and putting on an art exhibition. The Red Cross went away satisfied, even though thousands were transported to death camps. Five thousand Terezin children’s drawings survive, primarily stored in the Jewish Museum of Prague. Of the 15,000 Jewish children in Terezin, fewer than 150 survived. Among them is Inge Auerbacher, a Terezin prisoner from 1942 to ’45, who has dedicated her life to writing and lecturing about her experience and who spoke following performances last weekend.
Spencer’s play centers on two fictional children, Eva (Becca Myers) and Rebecca (Zoe Katz; on Aug. 5, Maddy Bersin), who were given drawing lessons by real-life artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898-1944), who was a student of Paul Klee and Walter Gropius. Beth Bayless gloriously plays this role. An excellent actor, Tony Beville portrays Friedl’s husband, Pavel, and a cruel German officer; and Luis Quiroz plays Leo Katz (1932-1944), who wrote the poem from which the play takes its title.
Sixth@Penn’s Dale Morris, who also wrote and directed a previous Human Rights Festival winner, “A Hundred Birds,” stages the work.
“Fireflies” continues at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 12. It alternates with the Human Rights Festival’s final presentation of 2007, “The Sago Mine Disaster.”
Tickets and information may be found at www.sexthatpenn.com or www.resilienceofthespirit.com or by calling (619) 688-9210 for reservations (a must).