Piano Fantasy [פנטזיה לפסנתר]

60-year-old Anna returns to the village in which she grew up in Poland. The village has financial problems it hopes to solve through Jewish tourism. The villagers fight over accommodating Anna. Anna is there to find her piano, the one she was playing with her mother when the Nazis came and took her. She wants her grandson to have the piano. She stays with an old couple and soon begins to suspect their house was her own childhood house. Helena, her hostess, never told her husband, the farmer, that the house is Jewish property, and fears Anna will not only take the piano but the house itself. The farmer confronts his wife after she kicks Anna out, and finds out the truth: Helena's parents worked for the Jews, and her mother told the Germans about Anna's family. When Helena's father saw the Jewish family on the train, he took the house. Anna shows them papers that prove the house is hers, but says she'll only take the piano. Helena refuses, being influenced by the village’s hatred of Jews. Anna tells her there is gold under the floor, and Helena and her husband tear down the house.

Cast Size:2M/2F

Original or Prominent Production:
Cameri Theater, 1994

Original Language: Hebrew

Production Rights Holder:

Aliza Olmert

Experience(s) Chronicled: European Jewry Before the Holocaust | Perpetrators, Bystanders and Collaborators | Survivors and Subsequent Generations