Funded by the BBC Children in Need
In 2020, young people voted on the idea they wanted to take forward as that year’s Literacy Project play. After a 2hr deliberation, discussion, and debate, they chose to create a piece of theatre around the Holocaust. The group decided they’d be telling the fictional story of Elke and Heidi Marie, imprisoned in a concentration camp during the Second World War. This was followed by a series of workshop sessions, undertaking research to help them create the backstory of their characters.
They gathered facts, survivor testimonies and witness accounts, but nothing was quite so impactful as our visit to The National Holocaust Centre and Museum to learn from the wonderful staff there about the truly human impact. ‘The Camp’ was to be set in Theresienstadt, and the group’s understanding of what life would have been like in such a place was broadened immeasurably when we were privileged to hear the late Ruth David share her Holocaust survival story. It was such a powerful day and so inspirational for our young people, and it certainly helped us shape the tone and context for our story.
Once our writer Neil A. Edwards had finished writing the script, the staff at The National Holocaust Centre and Museum were kind enough to look it over to ensure authenticity. The plot…
“In the ghetto-camp of Theresienstadt, imprisoned cabaret artist Elke Gruenbaum finds herself implicated in the Nazi’s propaganda plan to sell the camp as a luxury retreat for Jews. When asked to stage a performance for some visiting Red Cross dignitaries, she sees in it an opportunity to get the brutal facts out to the world. But when the lights go down, what will take centre stage – the truth, or the greatest deception of the twentieth century?”
Like many arts organisations in 2020, we had to adapt our usual methods and output to suit the new normal. June would usually have seen us producing a live performance at Trinity Arts Centre in Gainsborough. However, with the temporary closure of all live performance spaces, we needed to adapt our story. The decision was made to turn ‘The Camp’ into a radio play that could be put together with a combination of remote and socially distanced working practices.
Production times could be lengthened without the pressure of a live performance deadline to meet, and work on the play continued through the year, and a socially distanced recording session finally took place at Monster Trax Studios in Grantham.
Over two years after its inception, ‘The Camp’ was finally aired to audiences in both the UK and the USA in June 2022 as a radio play. We were now able to return to The National Holocaust Centre and Museum to record our thoughts for a documentary for C1 Media related to our play.
