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And the Rat Laughed [צחוק של עכברוש]
Author(s): Nava Semel
An opera based on Nava Semel's novel And the Rat Laughed, composed by Ella Milch-Sheriff. When a child asks her grandmother about her childhood for a school paper, the grandmother tells her story for the first time. She was born in Poland, and was given by her parents to a peasant family so that they would keep her safe. The peasant family takes away her name and identity, forcing her to become Christian. They starve her, and the family's young boy rapes her. Her only companion is a rat she calls "Stash". After a year, she's given to the catholic priest to be killed as revenge for Jesus’ crucifixion. But the priest hides her in his church and helps her rebuild her crushed body and soul. In the year 2099, two researchers are studying the myth of a "girl and rat" who survived the Holocaust.
Format: Opera
Notes:
See also Nava Semel’s website.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
World premiere, April 2005, produced by the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.
World premiere, April 2005, produced by the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.
Original Source Material: Based on the novel And the Rat Laughed by Nava Semel, published in 2001.
Nationality of Author: Israeli
Original Language: Hebrew
Publisher:
Experience(s) Chronicled: Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Righteous Gentiles | Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.