A hard-hitting play is coming to the breath-taking Princes Road Synagogue next month - and its subject matter remains frighteningly relevant today.
Part of the ‘Stolen Lives’ collection by Liverpool playwright Karen Rachel Kennedy, her play ‘Survival For Life’ is the next instalment in the series which aims to educate and remind people of the atrocities people were forced to endure during the war. ‘Survival For Life’ is based on the harrowing true experiences of a family torn apart in World War II.
Karen - a poet, writer and singer - was asked to tell the "remarkable" story of Mina Hecht Winik by her friends, Howard Winik JP and Cynthia Blake; Mina’s children. The performance, which takes place on May 8, will also include poetry, music and singing by The Stadttempel Choir of Vienna, Austria, 1938.
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Speaking to the ECHO, Karen, 63, said: “‘Survival For Life’ is the third play in my ‘Stolen Lives’ collections series and it tells the true life story and remarkable story of Mina Hecht Winik. Mina was the mother of my friends Howard Winik JP and Cynthia Blake - they asked me to write her story.”
In 1939, an 11-year-old Mina embarked on a solo journey from Nazi Vienna to Liverpool. Her mother, Taube Hecht, had to make the difficult decision to send Mina away for her own safety, all while knowing she’d never see her young daughter again. It's a heart-breaking story that's sure to hit particularly hard in light of the devastating experiences facing citizens of Ukraine, Yemen and more, as wars and conflict rage on across the globe.
The play was originally slated to take place in January 2021 to mark International Holocaust Memorial day, but it was postponed until January 2022. It was then postponed again until May 8 after “covid hit it both times”.
Karen continued: “Most of the play takes place in Vienna Austria before Nazi occupied Europe and during, when Hitler marched in in 1928. Sadly, [Mina’s] father Eisig Hecht was interned in September 1938 and Mina never sees her father again… Written and produced by me, [with direction from] my talented director Flloyd Kennedy, the play talks about her childhood and what life was like in Austria in the 30s and how it gets progressively worse because they're Jews.”
Of the relevance and duty of the arts in telling such stories, Karen said: “Basically, I am utilising and standing up for freedom against all forms of racial hate and discrimination for all people. I feel through the arts platform that telling these stories from World War II will live on and educate the youth and people of all ages. I intersperse [the performances] with music to soften the harsh realities.
“I’m a post-war baby, I’m 63, I grew up in the UK with parents and grandparents who lived through the war and once my generation passes, there's not going to be anyone alive who remembers this and now, we've got the poor people of Ukraine going through similar atrocities. Through the arts platform, we can do more because we're still fighting for democracy in the west and, sadly, history has repeated itself.”
'Survival For Life' takes place at Princes Road Synagogue on Sunday, May 8, 2022 from 7pm. Tickets can be purchased on the door or in advance through Ticket Source by clicking here.
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