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https://theconversation.com/lgbt-history-the-amazing-life-of-margot-heuman-how-theatre-gave-voice-to-a-queer-holocaust-survivor-176720>
"Many Holocaust plays feature Jewish teenagers coming of age in the shadow of
the death camps. Yet these works often present sentimentalised, redemptive
stories, such as the 1950s production of The Diary of Anne Frank. They
foreground certain narratives to the exclusion of others, such as queer
experiences. Speaking testimony, however, can bring such stories back into the
present.
How might we use the stage to tell a different story about the Holocaust to
young adults? This was the conversation with which we – Anna Hájková, a
Holocaust historian, and Erika Hughes, a scholar and director of Holocaust
theatre – began our project. We chose to focus on the marginalised topic of the
queer coming-of-age experience because it offered a powerful counterpoint to
the usual stories of the Holocaust.
Using the tools of documentary theatre, we presented one woman’s account of
queer desire and survival in ghettos and concentration camps, centering a
non-stereotypical perspective of life in the Holocaust. We invited audiences to
abandon their preconceptions of young people’s stories from the camps.
The story we tell defies the standard assumptions that have shaped so many
representations of the Holocaust. Our starting point was the life story of
Margot Heuman, the first lesbian Jewish Holocaust survivor who bore testimony.
Still thriving at 94, Margot lives in the US.
Over several months we developed a one-act play, The Amazing Life of Margot
Heuman, which premiered online at the UK’s Brighton Fringe Festival during
lockdown in 2021, and will be shown in Canada, the US, and Germany later this
year."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
