[NHC] Monday Night in Westerbork
Aug. 19th, 2008 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAfter dinner Monday night at NHC, Cellio and I were meandering campus a bit, debating which evening option to attend. One of this year's co-chairs (Ben) asked us to help set up chairs for the show in the theater, which made our decision for us.
Monday Night in Westerbork (S. Bear Bergman) is a solo show in alternating pieces, about Bear's research trip to the camps, about zir's gender identity, about our need for each other's stories and the power they contain, along with stories of Max Ehrlich, one of the Jewish inmates of Westerbork (a transit concentration camp in the Netherlands) who staged weekly cabaret performances there. On Monday nights, because on Tuesday, the trains shipped out, taking people to Auschwitz.
It's not a graphic show, but it is intense, however much humor there is (and not just of the gallows sort, either). Max was a popular performer before he was yanked off stage and sent to the camp. Even (especially?) in dire circumstances, people need a laugh. (And entertaining the overlords can keep you alive. Max didn't make it through the war, but used his humor to live more weeks than he would've otherwise.) Bear's own stories weren't light except in contrast, growing up hearing survivor's stories that they didn't tell their own grandchildren. They were at least at another level of remove, not pulling quite so hard on the tear ducts.
Well worth seeing. I wish I'd been awake enough to stay for the discussion afterward.
Bonus for seeing this at NHC: the chance to talk with Bear and zie's (affianced!) partner later during the week.
Monday Night in Westerbork (S. Bear Bergman) is a solo show in alternating pieces, about Bear's research trip to the camps, about zir's gender identity, about our need for each other's stories and the power they contain, along with stories of Max Ehrlich, one of the Jewish inmates of Westerbork (a transit concentration camp in the Netherlands) who staged weekly cabaret performances there. On Monday nights, because on Tuesday, the trains shipped out, taking people to Auschwitz.
It's not a graphic show, but it is intense, however much humor there is (and not just of the gallows sort, either). Max was a popular performer before he was yanked off stage and sent to the camp. Even (especially?) in dire circumstances, people need a laugh. (And entertaining the overlords can keep you alive. Max didn't make it through the war, but used his humor to live more weeks than he would've otherwise.) Bear's own stories weren't light except in contrast, growing up hearing survivor's stories that they didn't tell their own grandchildren. They were at least at another level of remove, not pulling quite so hard on the tear ducts.
Well worth seeing. I wish I'd been awake enough to stay for the discussion afterward.
Bonus for seeing this at NHC: the chance to talk with Bear and zie's (affianced!) partner later during the week.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-19 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-19 10:44 pm (UTC)The show wasn't easy; I was glad it was short enough to run without an intermission, even though I wanted more stories, too.