"The Pianist of Willesden Lane" Berkeley Rep

I do believe that, as it was stated today, the Berkeley Rep has to be one of the best university theaters in the country.    This production is inventive and original, employing the interplay of a pianist and her music, and her narrative of her mother's life.  It is Krystalnacht in Vienna, the same that Lili Kahlaer of Princeton escaped, first to London, and then to NYC and then to Princeton...having been paid for, as was Einstein, by someone like in the Spielberg movie. Curious that 11/9 started the holocaust, and 9/11 started America's...national crisis through its first attack on its borders.  Compelling to hear these survivor's stories as her parents were both killed in Auschwitz, one of the worst death camps but she and her two sisters were reunited in London. I have always been so drawn to these stories, to these people; I somehow think still that my mother was an Alsace Jew. She looked Jewish, perhaps even acted so.  I don't know...a mystery that will not be resolved.  I bought her recording of the Carnival of Animals to give to my god grandchildren...with Mona Golabek and her sister, Renee Golabek-Kaye as the pianists.   The lyrics are by Ogden Nash, of course, and the music by Camille Saint-Saens.  To earn an income her mother did cabaret singing, and one night an officer  sent his messenger with a red rose to her, to meet him, and she did so, and they were both "attracted at first sight"...he tells her to invite him to her first concert, and that she is the most beautiful woman he has known.  He follows her to America after the war, and they marry; he was decorated with the highest honors as a French resistance pilot by Charles De Gaulle.  Her mother succeeds in playing Grieg's concerto, after securing a scholarship at the Royal Academy in London.  That was her dream and it came true for her, as did reunion with her sisters.  It is a touching and poignant story and brought tears to one's eyes.  on  The message is to increase our own humanity in remembrance.  Based on the book, The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen.  Set in Vienna in 1938...Lisa Jura, a young Jewish musician, has her dreams interrupted by the historical events, and by the Nazi regime.  Adapted and directed by Hershey Felder, Pianist is infused with hope and the life affirming power of music. The source of inspiration for her mother is a concert by Myra Hess.  The National Gallery of London removed all of its artworks into safe keeping during the conflict of the war.  Hidden in Wales and Gloucestershire...a cultural blackout was taking place...The director of the National Gallery at this time was Kenneth Clark. who said the larger threat was "robbing Londoners of culture and "comofort and "beauty".  Myra Hess proposed that the Gallery become a concert hall...rather than an administrative site for the Ministry of War.  The concerts started in October 1939 u8ntil October 1946 irrespective of the numerous German air raids.  Kenneth Clark wrote, "This is the period when people are beginning to feel the want of nourishment for mind and spirit."  Hess provided just that -- an enduring symbol of strength and defiance through art.
Visit:  www.HoldOnToYourMusic.org.

Signing autographs after the performance.