A Will to Live

 A Will to Live
Chain Theatre
August 26, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Chain Theatre

Chain Theatre took on a monumental project by adapting Helena Weinrauch’s Holocaust memoir, A Will to Live, into a one woman theatre piece.  The outcome is a production of pure gold.  The memoir was originally written in 1945.  Kirk Gostkowski, who adapted the piece, said that when he read it, the words “were fresh and unique.  It felt like a primary document, and it needed to be preserved.”  In striving for this, Mr. Gostkowski has kept the perspective pure and authentic.  This piece honors Ms. Weinrauch’s words and experiences, and reminds us of the value and fragility of life. 

We first meet Helena (played by Masha King) when she wakes up in a hospital bed in Sweden.  She starts to tell of how she got there.  The allied soldiers were piling the skeletal bodies of the deceased prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp, when one soldier noticed her body was still warm.  She was rushed to the medic, then transported to a hospital in Sweden.  She now spends the days staring at the lake from her hospital window, catatonic, hiding food out of fear of starvation, and trusting no one.  She takes us back to her sixteenth birthday.  She is living in Germany with her parents and older sister.  The Russians invade, causing her family to separate in order to remain safe.  Then the Nazis take power.  While she is at work, the Nazis sweep her town for Jewish residents, taking her parents and sister.  She is alone.  Her boss helps her obtain false papers and puts her on a train to a different city.  She hides in plain sight under an assumed identity, until she is recognized by someone from her home town.  What follows is years of torture, dehumanization, hard labor, and starvation in three different Nazi concentration camps.   She survives. 

Masha King as Helena Weinrauch
Photo coourtesy of Chain Theatre

Masha King delivers a masterful performance as Helena Weinrauch.  She is alone on stage for two and a half hours (with a ten minute intermission).  Her performance is flawless.  She ages in front of you.  You see the emotional toll on her face, and feel it in her eyes.  Her center shifts as the physical pain overwhelms her, yet she does not succumb.  Ms. King’s ability to embody these expereinces, but not delve so deeply as to cause the audience to look away, is phenomenal.  She takes the audience from one horrific event to the next, carrying the weigh and devastation, while keeping the audience connected to every step of her journey.  

Rick Hamilton has directed this piece with such skill and sensitivity that you are fully present and absorbed, yet not overwhelmed by the violence and demoralization.  You wait for the next action, hoping it will bring resolution, only to delve deeper and darker into more horrific events.  When  the second act starts, the main characters tells of the years she spent in three different concentration camps, including Auschwitz.  Mr. Hamilton brilliantly keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, keeping the audience fully engaged, while limiting the time to process the horrors taking place.  The audience has no choice but to move forward, as does the main character.  The audience hangs on her every word, taking it all in, and gathering every detail of evidence from her experiences. 

Masha King as Helena Weinrauch
Photo courtesy of Chain Theatre

Every choice in this production was clearly made to honor the words and experiences of Helena Weinrauch.  The main character speaks directly to the audience as if sharing her story with a friend.  The other characters are heard as voice overs, keeping the focus fully on the main character.  At the age of 101, Ms. Weinrauch is still alive and living in New York City.  We hear her voice and see footage of her in the epilogue of the piece.  To hear her say how she has forgiven those who caused her harm and carries no hate is truly cathartic.  She says that hate is evil, and to respond with hate perpetuates the evil that caused the devastation.  This piece reminds us of the atrocities in our history, and speaks loudly to why we need to remember so as not to repeat. 

Over the years Chain Theatre has built a strong reputation for quality work, and this production raises the bar even higher.  A Will to Live is playing through September 16.  It is an important piece of theatre.  Get a ticket right away! 

Domenick Danza