Badac Theatre Company presents
In February 1940, the Nazi government began building the single greatest killing centre ever conceived by mankind. It had within its grounds, four purpose built gas chambers, each equipped with its own crematorium. People were shipped to Auschwitz/Birkenau from all over Europe, either to be gassed on arrival or to be worked to death. At least 1.5 million men, women and children are known to have died there.
Ashes to Ashes is a play about the force of the human soul. It explores the power of spiritual strength in the face of humiliation, fear and death. It is a moving and deeply affecting story which follows the day to day existence of two inmates thrown together into a living hell.
“If you are only going to see one play about the Holocaust, in my view it should be this one”.
“Ashes to Ashes sheds fresh light on thoughts commonly kept in the darker, seldom visited recesses of modern consciousness”.
“Brilliantly intense stuff”.
“The power of Ashes to Ashes lies not only in the strength and honesty of the writing and performances but also in the stark simplicity of its handling. Using the most basic of sets, Badac show us the full severity of the violence and degradation visited upon death camp inmates. An extremely effecting piece of work, Ashes to Ashes is shocking without being gratuitous and extremely dramatic in its stripped bare method of production.”
Ashes to Ashes is an exploration of the human spirit.
1942 Auschwitz/Birkenau. Families separated upon arrival. Two men from different parts of Europe are thrown together by a barbaric selection process. They are welcomed into the camp by a smiling guard who proceeds to strip, beat, shave and finally tattoo them. After they have been given inmate uniforms and assigned to a barrack we discover that one of them, Moshe, is Jewish and from Crete. The other, Hirsch, is also Jewish and from Berlin.
Moshe explains to Hirsch that the journey from Crete has taken fourteen days. He describes how he has watched his mother and baby niece die during the tortuous trip. From this moment on we follow them through beatings, work, starvation and humiliation. We watch as they form a friendship that cannot be broken, firstly by the brutality of the guards and ultimately by entrance to the gas chamber.
We see that even death cannot triumph over friendship and spirit.
Ashes to Ashes has been performed, with equal effect, in theatre spaces ranging from 60 to 350 seats. It employs minimal set and lighting.
| Running time |
1hr 10mins (no interval) |
| Number in Company |
3 Actors, 1 Stage Manager |
| Lighting |
7 x 650w profiles + 4 Floods (or similar Lamps) |
| Sound |
No sound required |
| Set |
2 light metal plates, suspended from rig, towards the back of the performance area |
| Metal Sheet |
|
Metal Sheet |
| Front of house profile possibly with iris |
| Overhead Profile |
| Overhead profile |
|
Overhead Profile |
IN ADDITION TO LIGHTS SHOWN WE NEED EITHER:
4 FLOODS OR HALOGENS THAT ARE FOCUSED ON THE AUDIENCE.
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