"Ashes to Ashes" presented by the "Badac Theatre Company" - review.

Authors Avatar

Ashes To Ashes – Review

“Ashes to Ashes” was presented by the “Badac Theatre Company”. A tragic piece of physical theatre telling the story of two Jewish men held in captivity at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. Although this piece is non-naturalistic it portrays the horrifying truth of the ordeal that thousands of Jews suffered.

The play started even before you got to your seat with the three performers reciting a Jewish prayer, their voices strong and in time with each other. This created a feeling of suspense, it’s not very often you come into a theatre to see the actors staring blankly out at you repeating over and over the same words.

The staging was simple, very minimalist. The only material objects being sheets of metal hanging upstage centre. And a metal rod used for beating them. The main acting happened within three spotlights, stage left and right was the prisoners, with upstage centre being the guard. In only one scene did the performance move out of the spotlights. Not too much variation there, making the performance rather static.

The three men introduced their characters standing in the audience, directly addressing them; however, I didn’t ‘feel’ their characters. There was no sense of emotion. They were telling of the happy times they had lived and how they were shattered by them being taken to Auschwitz, yet I felt no desire to help them, I did not feel sorry for them.

Join now!

The costumes were simple, but this is what would have been worn. Pyjama like uniforms, making everyone the same. You didn’t have much time to see these costumes before they were stripped off at the orders of the prison guard. The actors, with no embarrassment showing, stood naked. This was a defining moment, you felt embarrassment for them. Another moment that the audience was made to feel uncomfortable, was “role call”, a time when the Jewish prisoners would know their fate. Do they get to live another day or get sent to the gas chambers to die? Bright lights were ...

This is a preview of the whole essay