To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, Habima Theater is presenting a musical, Masada 1942, starting on January 23.
The play, which was written by Glenn Berenbeim, with lyrics by David Goldsmith and music by Shuki Levi, is set in the Warsaw Ghetto.The plot concerns a Jewish theater troupe in the ghetto that is required by the Nazis to keep staging shows as the deportations to concentration camps increase. The troupe must contend with resistance fighters who hide at theater.
The head of the theater troupe decides to write a new play that tells the story of the Jews who fought the Romans at Masada.On the eve of the premiere, the Nazi commander instructs the troupe’s head to reassure the audience and tell them that the planned evacuation from the ghetto the next morning will lead them to a comfortable place to live and not to death camps.The head of the troupe and its members face a moral dilemma that affects their lives and the lives of tens of thousands of other Jews in the ghetto.This is the first Hebrew production of the musical, which was produced in English at the West End in 2008 under the title Imagine This.
Moshe Kaptan is the director. The play has two casts and the actors include Amit Farkash, Ruby Porat Shoval and Roy Miller.