My Father: an Inventory [Mon père: inventaire]

A staged reading from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s book of the same name. In the book, Grumberg attempts to trace the footsteps of his father, who died in a concentration camp. The author summarized the significance of the reading: “My father... It took almost sixty years for the words ‘my father’ to flow from my pen. But once written in black and white, ‘my father’ awakened in me a strange fascination. Today, which would have been his one-hundredth birthday, I will try to write down everything I know, or believe to know, about my father, in the form of an inventory. I have no direct memory of my father. I do not know what his eyes looked like, nor do I know his height, his build, or the sound of his voice.” — Jean-Claude Grumberg, February 2004.

Format: Lecture/ staged reading

Cast Size: 3 (minimum)

Notes:

Reference material:
France 3, 31.10.2003, https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/2428596001/jean-claude-grumberg-mon-pere-inventaire

Note:
Jean-Claude Grumberg adapted the text by Herb Gardner, with the title “Conversation avec mon père” directed by Marcel Bluwal, with: Claude Brasseur, Serge Hazanavicius, Arthur Dupont, Maurice Chevit, Denise Chalem, Louise Vincent, Henri Lambert, Philippe Séjourné, Franck Olivier Bonnet, Benjamin Feitelson, Erwan Daouphars, Christophe Boyadji, Romain Prud homme, Pablo Valero, Adrien François, Valentin Barniske, Romain Larue, Leny Bueno; Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, France, 2002.

Original or Prominent Production:
February 3–21, 2004: author and narrator Jean-Claude Grumberg, Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris, France.

Original Language: French

Publisher:

Théâtre: Arles: Actes Sud-Papiers, 2001 et “Mon père, inventaire; suivi de Une leçon de savoir-vivre”; Paris: Éd. du Seuil, DL 2010.

Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | The Ghettos