A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Primo
Author(s): Sir Antony Sher
Based on the memoir <If This Is a Man by Italian Jewish chemist and writer, Primo Levi, which describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The play is a monologue told by an older Primo looking back at his life in Auschwitz.
Format: One-man show
Cast Size:1M
Notes:
Sir Antony Sher was born in Cape Town, South Africa, but has worked mainly in the U.K., and in 2000 was awarded Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) for services to theatre. He is now a British citizen. The production, starring Sher, opened on Broadway in July 2005.
In 2005, a filmed recording of the Royal National Theatre production of Sher’s Primo was broadcast by HBO and the BBC.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
2004, Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London.
2004, Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London.
Original Source Material: Adapted from Primo Levi's 1947 memoir If This Is a Man
Original Language: English
Publisher:
Primo Time by Sir Antony Sher is an account of bringing Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoir to the stage. Published by Nick Hern Books.
Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps
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.