THE GREATEST SIN OF ALL to be Staged at Victoria Baths, April 1

THE HORRORS of the Holocaust will be brought to life in a powerful new play being staged in the dramatic setting of Manchester's historic Victoria Baths.

Called ‘The Greatest Sin of All', the play is based on accounts of real people's experiences and will take the audience into the heart of Nazi darkness.

Both co-directors Nathan Shreeve and Jo Gewirtz have ancestors who were persecuted by the Nazis.

Says Nathan: "There's a danger that the statistics can dehumanise the Holocaust. It's so horrific that to try to comprehend it you almost get a mental block and can't take it in.

"We wanted to convey it through personal human stories so the audience is engaged on a very personal level." The audience is taken on an emotional and physical journey through the two-hour performance, moving through different parts of the building.

The play will have staggered start times every 20 minutes and only 20 audience members will be in any one place at one time to add to the sense of intimacy. To achieve this the production will have around 50 performers, both professional actors and students from all over Greater Manchester.

The production will be the biggest stage event in terms of personnel in the city when it is performed on April 1.

Nathan added: "We've got a fantastic cast from the professional acting community and the student community. It's an enormous spectrum of talent."

Nathan and Jo, along with fellow director Kitty Critchley, form the Schmucks Theatre Company which has already garnered critical praise with its production ‘The Carroll Myth'.

Based on the life of Alice in Wonderland creator Lewis Carroll, they will be taking it to Buxton and the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

Nathan said that being allowed to perform in the Victorian Baths was crucial to the staging of The Greatest Sin of All.

The faded grandeur and sheer scale of the building helps the audience to travel in their imaginations from the war-torn ghettos of Krakow, through to the raided houses of Berlin and Prague, and finally, to the harrowing emptiness and silence of the Nazi death camps.

"The holocaust is 100 per cent relevant to today," Nathan added. "When you look at Egypt, Libya and the Middle East there's political and economic instability. These were the conditions that helped the Nazis rise to power in Germany.

"There are also so many examples of genocides: from Rwanda to Zimbabwe, it's still happening, though not on the same scale, and it's up to us to address it and do something about it."
The title comes from a quote from Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel that "to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all".

"This is one way audiences can engage with the events; it's not something behind glass at a museum. Society has not been the same since the Holocaust and never will be."

The Greatest Sin of All
Presented by Schmucks Theatre Company
Directed by Nathan Shreeve, Jo Gewirtz and Kitty Critchley.
1 April 2011, Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Longsight, Manchester

Performance times vary
Tickets available from www.schmuckstheatrecompany.co.uk http://www.thenatter.co.uk/2011/03/holocaust-play-at-victoria-baths

 

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