Voices of the Holocaust marks its 10th anniversary and Holocaust memorial day 2023 with a performance of KINDNESS: A Legacy of the Holocaust at Stantonbury Theatre, Milton Keynes.
Voices of the Holocaust has been making waves since its launch in January 2013 and is returning to its roots at Stantonbury Theatre on Wednesday 25 January 2023 with a performance of KINDNESS: A Legacy of the Holocaust.
This play aims to show the Holocaust was more complex than the old ‘lambs to the slaughter' rhetoric. This play is about the richness of the human spirit and about survival.
Artistic director Cate Hollis says: “Theatre is a surrogate human voice. As we approach the post-survivor era these stories need to be told properly. Voices aim is to present these stories to audiences in historically accurate and engaging ways and gives a voice to those who don’t have one.”
She continues, "It wasn’t that Hitler was evil, that’s the easy thing, that excuses us from responsibility. That’s saying bad things happen because of bad people and that’s not the story of the Holocaust.
Those doing the killing were ordinary people who went home and put their children to bed, who had loving relationships and chose to do it.”
Cate, former Head of Drama and Theatre Studies at Stantonbury Campus, founded Voices after realising the subject was often being “mis-taught” in schools and says, “Intentions are always good but too often a lack of historical research and defaulting to fictionalisations can do more harm than good”.
“Our theatre is beautiful. We address the grotesque and horrifying in a way that doesn’t traumatise young people/audiences. Holocaust education needs to be creative and imaginative and do the work that survivors’ voices have been doing for decades.”
Voices will be performing KINDNESS: A Legacy of the Holocaust, a verbatim play based on the testimony of Hungarian survivor Susan Pollack MBE, aged only 13 when she was sent to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944.
KINDNESS: A Legacy of the Holocaust has been described as “beautiful and empowering” and “compelling and emotive”.
It promises that Susan’s legacy of the Holocaust stays with you for a very long time.
The production includes a post-show Q&A with Cate, co-author Mark Wheeller and the actors addressing any aspects of the play, Susan’s story, Holocaust history that the whole audience can benefit from.
Book your tickets here.
