{"id":10653,"date":"2023-10-04T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10653"},"modified":"2024-02-15T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T13:01:00","slug":"the-pianist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10653","title":{"rendered":"The Pianist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The world premiere of Emily Mann\u2019s theatrical adaptation of Wladyslaw Szpilman\u2019s memoir, The Pianist<\/em>, opened at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick last weekend and will run through October 22. Directed by Mann, the show has an original score by Iris Hond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pianist<\/em> is Szpilman\u2019s recounting of the annihilation of the Jews of Warsaw, and how he\u2014a leading young Polish pianist and composer\u2014survived. He had many dark days, but his music both consoled him and inspired him to keep living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why now? You may recall that Tony Award-winning Mann\u2019s career has emphasized social justice, through such works as Having Our Say <\/em>and Gloria: A Life<\/em>. Szpilman\u2019s story is, of course, a cautionary tale, and taking it on now is a timely move, as surveys show the Holocaust receding in public memory and as anti-semitic rhetoric and attacks are on the rise. It\u2019s dangerous to ignore those past lessons, when around the world extremist leaders grow increasingly prominent. Who might their net targets be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A terrific cast has been assembled for this production, including Russian-born actor Daniel Donskoy, who makes his American stage debut as Szpilman, bringing both passion and intelligence to the role. I couldn\u2019t take my eyes off him. In Szpilman\u2019s nuclear family are his father (played by Austin Pendleton), mother (Claire Beckman), sisters Regina (Arielle Goldman) and Halina (Georgia Warner), and brother Henryk (Paul Spera).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henryk can\u2019t stop warning his family about fascism\u2019s deadly implications, as the dark cloud descends on Warsaw. The parents don\u2019t want to hear\u2014or believe\u2014it. Much like Szpilman, his father loses himself in music, almost obsessively playing his violin, but bit by bit, the ability to maintain the illusion of normalcy or that it can ever be regained, disappears along with the city\u2019s food supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several other actors\u2014Charlotte Ewing, Jordan Lage, Robert David Grant, and Tina Benko\u2014take on multiple roles as resistance fighters, people who try to help Szpilman or not, and Nazis. The play\u2019s short scenes build and deepen Szpilman\u2019s despair, as the whole is knitted together by the piano score of Iris Hond, which combines her original music, classical pieces, and Szpilman\u2019s own work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who needs evidence of the significance of this production need only read the biographical sketch for actor Claire Beckman, which concludes with her gratitude to Emily Mann for including her in this work of art \u201cand by extension my great grandmother Anna Frankova Pickova, murdered in Terezin in 1943.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pianist <\/em>is on stage at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Tickets available here<\/a> or by calling 732-246-7717.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world premiere of Emily Mann\u2019s theatrical adaptation of Wladyslaw Szpilman\u2019s memoir, The Pianist, opened at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick last weekend and will run through October 22. Directed by Mann, the show has an original score by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Holocaust isn't just a aberrant casualty of history. Much in today's news suggests that feeding hate and divisiveness is on the rise and will end7 in the same place. Nowhere we should want to be. Must-see theater.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[266,104,147,785,1596],"tags":[625,1270,2125],"class_list":["post-10653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","category-true-crime","tag-emily-mann","tag-george-street-playhouse","tag-the-pianist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2LP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10653"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10841,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10653\/revisions\/10841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}