When playwright James Still read Eva Geiringer Schloss' book, "Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale," about her experiences during the Holocaust, he was moved to construct a play from its contents.
Eva Schloss and Ed Silverberg were childhood friends of Anne Frank whom they met when their families were living in Amsterdam to escape Nazi persecution. Ed is the "Hello" in Anne's diary. (His given name was Helmut.) Eva's mother married Anne's father, Otto Frank, in 1953. Still conducted lengthy videotaped interviews with Schloss and Silverberg in 1995-96 about their Holocaust experiences and friendship with Anne Frank. The result is a trenchant and moving docudrama, And Then They Came For Me, now playing at Dallas Children's Theater.
We learn that Jews were not allowed to attend school, travel, listen to the radio or use public transportation, and ultimately they were forbidden even to ride bicycles. They also were mandated to wear a yellow star on their outer garments to identify themselves as Jews. Performed on an almost bare stage with only a small table and a sheet backdrop with the date, November 1938 (the date of the infamous Krystallnacht, night of the broken glass, when Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized), the play intersperses videotaped interviews on screens above the stage with live dramatizations of the events being related by Schloss and Silverberg.
Dallas Children's Theater founder and artistic director Robyn Flatt's innovative staging utilizes a universally superb cast. On opening night, the role of Anne was played by Sheree Tomba with a charming innocence that displayed the optimism inherent in Anne's character. Derik Webb, a familiar face on local stages, exhibited the right mix of charm as Young Ed, a romantic interest in Anne's life, and determination as he embarked on a lone journey of escape. Sara Dance displayed the predictable frustration of a young teen forced into hiding with her mother for two years to escape the Nazis. Ian Newman, a fifth grader, played a Hitler Youth on opening night and exhibited a chilling display of the blind devotion of the recruits in Hitler's youth movement.
The play's two basic leitmotifs are this unquestioning obedience of the German youth juxtaposed against the Jews' desperation for survival and freedom. In recommending this play for children as young as age eight, Flatt echoes the lesson of the play: "We have to teach them (about prejudice) when they're young."
And Then They Came For Me is a play for children with a lesson for adults and a play for adults with a lesson children can grasp.
