THE WESTERBORG SERENADE - DAVID NATALE * 19/20-11-2010
THE WESTERBORG SERENADE
A ONE-MAN-SHOW
WITH A CAST OF THOUSANDS
DAVID NATALE
'N XAVIERA HOLLANDER PRODUCTIE
Vrijdag 19 november 2010
Zaterdag 20 november 2010
Dit programma wordt in het ENGELS opgevoerd
Mr. Natale seamlessly portrays more than 15 characters;
including German director, Max Ehrlich,
actress Camilla Spira,
Commandant Gemmeker
and the beloved Dutch singing duo:
Johnny and Jones.
Natale developed The Westerbork Serenade
after much research as well as interviews with survivors.
In English, he dynamically incorporates period sketches,
songs and accounts to make the audience acutely feel
what it is to perform for one's life. Westerbork was not
a death camp. It was crowded and food was scarce,
but one could survive there. It even had a hospital,
schools and a shop offering goods previously looted
from the Jews. Administration of the camp was run by
German speaking Jewish inmates. The SS commandant's pet project was a weekly cabaret show in the camp. The cabaret featured top Jewish entertainers from Germany and Holland. If one was in the show, one was "exempt" from transport - temporarily. By the end of the war however, most of the performers from Westerbork were also sent to their deaths in eastern camps, joining the eventual six million who died.