During World War II, the inmates of Westerbork transit camp were permitted to stage a weekly cabaret performance… just hours after 1,000 of their friends and neighbours had left on a train destined for Auschwitz. Playwright Ian Buckley tells us about the camp that housed many of Europe’s finest performers of the time and how it inspired his latest play, The Project. Time to book your tickets!
The production receives its world premiere at the White Bear Theatre from 5 to 23 March 2019.
Westerbork camp. Northern Holland. 1943. Enter a surreal world, devoid of a moral compass, where people are forced to make the most terrible of choices. Set amid a bleak landscape, the camp is full of people worried about their lives and their homes. Yet at its heart is a cabaret featuring some of the best performers in Europe. It is watched over by a commandant who takes as much pleasure from the entertainers as he does from overseeing the weekly transportation lists.
One particular performer, Anna Hilmann, has caught his eye. Will she accept his invitations? Will it keep her and her loved ones alive? Is that a compromise she can make?
Director Anthony Shrubsall
The real Westerbork camp was set-up by the Dutch government in 1939 to be a refugee camp for Jews entering the Netherlands. By 1942 it was under German control, being run by the SS. Between 1942 and 1944, nearly 100,000 Jews were deported from Westerbork, the majority to Auschwitz and Sobibor, where they were executed on arrival. One of the most popular comedians of pre-war Berlin cabaret, Max Ehrlich, led the performers at Westerbork. He was joined by entertainers including Kurt Gerron, Willy Rosen and Camilla Spira.
Playwright Ian Buckley is a regular on the London fringe. His previous productions include Picasso’s Artful Occupation, The Tailors’ Last Stand (both Barons Court Theatre), Suits and Blouses (Orange Tree Theatre), Tainted Love (Young Actors Theatre) and James Bonney MP (White Bear Theatre).
Anthony Shrubsall directs The Project. The founder member of Entire Theatre Company has previously directed productions including Zena Edwards’ Security at Japan’s Shizuoka Festival and Buckley’s Real Life TV at Barons Court Theatre.
The Project runs from 5 to 23 March 2019 at the White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Rd, Kennington, London SE11 4DJ. Performances are from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm with matinees on Sundays at 4pm and an extra Saturday matinee on 23 March at 3pm. Tickets are priced from £15 (concessions £12). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
Ian Buckley on the realities of Westerbork and how it inspired The Project:
What inspired you to write The Project?
The inspiration for The Project came from my deep interest in history and its relevance to our times, especially in the light of the re-growth of fascism in Europe today. It’s important to be aware of where fascism/nazism always ends up – in huge destruction overall and the victimisation and destruction of minority groups. Nazi Germany is a paradigm of this process. Westerbork is one example (and not the worst) of the killing machine – the end result of the doctrine and philosophy of fascism – cranking up to do its deadly duty.
How did you go about researching Westerbork & how surprised were you by what you discovered?
In reading about the Nazi killing machine I came across Westerbork quite by chance. I knew names like Auschwitz, Belsen, Sobibor, but Westerbork I had never heard of. I had also never made the distinction between a concentration camp (for killing or working to death) and a holding camp like Westerbork or Theresienstadt (for registering, filing, sorting). These latter two were, in fact, the ante-rooms to the gates of hell, ie the camps like Auschwitz.
I did not know that life in these holding camps was tough and unpleasant, but much better than the onwards destination waiting for their inmates. In Westerbork, the inmates were ‘allowed’ to play sports, to do exercise classes, to rehearse and present cabaret and engage in other cultural pursuits. But the ‘they’ who were allowed to do these activities were actually always a small minority of longer-stay inmates. The vast majority of Jews came in, were registered and very soon left on the weekly transport to (mainly) Auschwitz.
I read two wonderfully moving and sharp contemporary accounts of the camp written by Jewish inmates: the first by an inspirational young woman called Ette Hillesum. The second by a cool observant ex-journalist, Philip Mecanicus (both sadly murdered in Auschwitz). They fleshed so much of the life of the camp out for me. I was there, part of the everyday life of the camp, imaginatively living it.
After reading about it in more depth, I was hooked. This was, for me, a symbol of the moral question that haunts our times. How could such deliberate and coldly calculated mass murder be allowed to happen in a supposedly civilised continent such as Europe? And what sort of sinisterly cruel political philosophy would weaponise art delivered by top professional artists to help in its aim of the genocide of certain races and types and the enslavement of others.
Esther Philipse in comic sketch, Westerbork cabaret – 1942/3
The camp held some of the most famous names in German entertainment at the time didn’t it?
Yes, it certainly did. I have concentrated mainly on cabaret so I’ll base my conclusions on that.
The Jewish cabaret artistes interned in Westerbork were at the very top of their profession: Max Ehrlich (Producer of the cabaret shows), Kurt Gerron, Willie Rosen, Franz Engel, Jetty Cantor, Camilla Spira, Esther Philipse, Jonny & Jones. They had learned their profession performing to general German or Dutch audiences. Their cabaret was a cabaret for the masses, for everyone. It had very little that was specifically Jewish about it. It was fun, slapstick, comedy turns, popular songs both funny & romantic, dancing, mimicry…
And there they all were, interned in this camp about 500 metres by 500 metres, ‘allowed’ to do what they loved to do – make an audience laugh, forget their troubles for as long as that cabaret lasted, take people out of themselves into a world of fun, mild eroticism and enjoyment. As cabaret artists involved in the productions they also had a better chance of staving off the weekly transport of 1000 Jews heading for Auschwitz or Belzcek or Sobibor. In the end, every one of the best known of these cabaret artists met their deaths in the killing machine erected by Nazi Germany.
Why did you think this was an important story to tell?
I found the situation surreal. A German SS camp commandant who liked cabaret, who was generally polite and not brutal or personally violent (like his two predecessors) to the inmates, who encouraged and funded the cabaret and always took the seat of honour in the front row, but who also made absolutely sure that the transport with 1000 Jews on it left Westerbork for Auschwitz every week on a Tuesday morning. Did he, in fact, encourage the cabaret – which always kicked off on the Tuesday evening that had seen the transport leave the same morning – in order to give a semblance of normality to a frighteningly abnormal situation? Was he using the cabaret to try to lull the Jewish inmates into a false sense of security in order to keep them quiet so the transports would pass off in peace and tranquillity?
How much of The Project is fiction and how much is based on the facts?
The general framework of my play – the setting, the activities pursued, the overall historical period (1942-3) – is strongly based in fact. The actual characters, the storyline, the emotional relationships, are pure fiction.
How difficult was it to decide what made it into this particular story?
Camilla Spira in song review Westerbork cabaret – 1942
It was more difficult than with any other play I’ve written. There were times I simply did not know where the focus of my play lay. Through many and successive re-writes I finally fleshed out a storyline and characters. I began to inhabit them and feel with them. I cannot tell you how much I had to set aside. You could write many plays on Westerbork all telling a different story. All human life was gathered there, all social classes, all interest groups. I had to ruthlessly keep to my simple storyline based on one group of inmates. In the end, it was the right thing to do.
Have you had to take any extra care in creating a piece of theatre about a moment of history that is so shocking to many and deeply personal to others?
Yes, yes and yes again! I have been aware of the extreme sensitivities that surround this subject matter and this period. I have taken much care to tell a story about real human beings (not ciphers or cardboard cut-outs) and to not censure any emotional development once it has launched in the play. I have tried to balance this with a reverence for the subject matter.
In a way, I feel I have a duty to tell this story. It needs to be told and re-told. Look at the dark forces now raising their heads in Europe, America and in our own country too. Forces directly aligned to – and taking their political inspiration from – the fascists and Nazis of the 1930s and 1940s. That’s why, in the end, I felt driven to tell this story.
How are you feeling about staging the show at The White Bear Theatre?
Great! I know Michael who runs the theatre and we get on extremely well. We’ve just held auditions and have now assembled a super-talented cast. I am working with an extremely able, confident, committed director. The theatre is a pleasant, quiet, well-equipped theatre-space. I can’t wait to see The Project up and running.
What can audiences expect from a trip to see The Project?
A tightly-written roller-coaster of a play that, whilst being primarily a play about people and their emotional relationships, will have a strong input of song, music and dance based on the Westerbork Cabaret. In fact, the play’s framing motif will be music played by our cast which will interlink scenes as well as occur within scenes.
The Project runs from 5 to 23 March 2019 at the White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Rd, Kennington, London SE11 4DJ. Performances are from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm with matinees on Sundays at 4pm and an extra Saturday matinee on 23 March at 3pm. Tickets are priced from £15 (concessions £12). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
