Gramophone

Gramophone, the new original show by Marianna Arzumanova and Igor Šebo, with music composed by the world-famous piano virtuoso Evgeny Kissin, is a philosophical drama, connecting a true story of a relationship between a female prisoner and a guard at a concentration camp with a children's fairy tale about learning the Yiddish alphabet. The play links and intertwines drama, musical and non-verbal theatre, and offers the audience a unique personal perspective of the Holocaust.

The themes of the show include the exploration of the spiritual world of human beings, their inner strength, and the ability to choose one’s fate that is always present, even in the face of suffering, physical oppression and unbearable humiliation.

The authors of the show were inspired by the ideas of an Auschwitz survivor — the well-known psychiatrist and founder of existential analysis and logotherapy Viktor Emil Frankl. Based on his first-hand experiences of the Holocaust, Frankl hypothesised that the main human need in order to survive is a purpose — a very specific purpose — which gives them “something to live for”. In moments of greatest despair in the concentration camp, Frankl imagined himself lecturing his students at his department of the University of Vienna, about everything he experienced and observed. His suffering thus gained meaning and had a clear purpose — to survive in order to share his experience.

In this way, the female protagonist of Gramophone escapes into her own spiritual world and imagines herself telling a fairy tale to her child who was taken from her. In this fairy tale, the “jungle” that is the concentration camp transforms into a magical jungle with friendly animals that behave like humans. Her fellow prisoners, who are reduced to mere numbers in the reality of the camp, become fairy-tale characters, playfully named after the letters of the Yiddish alphabet, and can fulfil and follow their own dream. All the songs will be sung live in Yiddish, the translated text integrated seamlessly into the show..

The event will be held in english.