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Kindertransport
Vaudeville Theatre
(9th Sept 96 - 30th Nov 96)

Review by Darren Dalglish
8th Sept 96
The following review is from a PREVIEW performance

This play by Diane Samuels tells the story of Eve a small Jewish girl in the 1930s. She is sent to England to stay with an English family by her parents because the Nazi's have gained power and this signalled a huge escalation in anti-Semitic activity. A lot of new Laws deprived Jews of their citizenship and prohibited marriage or extra-marital relations between Jews and nationals of German. All their passports were marked with the letter J and they were banned from places of public entertainment and cultural institutions. They had their driving licences revoked and their property confiscated .

The story flashes from the past to the present day as we see Eve leaving Germany and starting her life in England. At the same time we see Eve in the present time, still living in England as a grown up woman who has a child of around 20 years of age,.

We witness all the traumas that Eve and many others like her at the time coped with having to leave their parents at these troubled times and the effect it had on them.

This thought provoking and touching play has been well produced by the Soho Theatre Company. There is some very good acting by Diana Quick who played the grown up Eve. She expressed the grief and torment that Eve was still going through very skilfully. So too did Jean Boht who played Lil, the woman who cared for Eve in England. But the best performance was by Julia Malewski who played the young Eve. She was very convincing and charming. She played the part so well you could really believe in the character she was portraying. This play is her first acting performance, and she is definitely someone to look out for in the future.

The set is an attic which is very effective in portraying the scenes in the 1930s and the present day.

An impressive play which is sad and heartbreaking, but helps us all to understand more of what these children had to go through and how we must never forget.

(Darren Dalglish)

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