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...
Sleeping Child [L’Enfant Do]
Author(s): Jean-Claude Grumberg
She is a teacher; he is unemployed. They live in a quiet suburb. They have a child, a son called “L’Enfant Do” who is named after the famous French lullaby. The child has a big wise bear who talks to him. Generations of family members intermingle and discuss the events of the past, as the grandfathers toss the bear to each other. The paternal grandmother, a Sephardi named Rose, feeds everyone with meatballs, made with love. The maternal grandfather, an old Ashkenazi Jew named Max, is sick and disillusioned. He tells stories of orcs, and recounts a tale of peasants who once rescued a child from a train to save him from being “branded.” The themes of the play include Jewish identity in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the preservation and passing on of memories. Stories of persecution are told with a smile, but the question is, should these stories be passed on? Should the child know what happened in the past?
Format: Full-length play
Cast Size: 4M/2F
Running Time: 2 hours
Character breakdown:
Characters:
Max
Rose
She
He
The bear
The child
With: François Berleand, Chantal Neuwirth, Olga Grumberg, Jonathan Zaccaiï, Alexandre Aubry, and Philippe Le Gall.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
September 10, 2002; Theatre Hébertot, Paris; directed by Jean-Michel Ribes. The first scenes were written at the request of France Culture and performed at the Theatre d’Avignon in 1995.
September 10, 2002; Theatre Hébertot, Paris; directed by Jean-Michel Ribes. The first scenes were written at the request of France Culture and performed at the Theatre d’Avignon in 1995.
Original Source Material: BNF - Richelieu - Typescript, 1995–1998. 4-COL-250(293) - Typescript, 2002. 4-COL-250(294) - Scène 3. Typescript, [no date]. 4-COL-250(295).
Nationality of Author: French
Original Language: French
Publisher:
Arles: Actes Sud-Papiers, 2002.
Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | The Ghettos
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
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.
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