Off-Broadway Review: AMID FALLING WALLS (TSVISHN FALNDIKE VENT) (Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage)

WE LIVE FOREVER

When people think of Jews during the Holocaust (if they think of the Holocaust at all) they picture old and young passively assembling for deportation to concentration camps or lining up submissively to be sent to the gas chambers. But National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s newest offering Amid Falling Walls (Tvishn Falndike Vent) tells a different story.

The company of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s
Amid Falling Walls (Tsvishn Falndike Vent)

Using material from Shmerke Kaczerginski’s Lider Fun Di Getos un Lagern (Songs of the Ghettos and Camps), as well as other sources, the production paints a picture of survival, resistance and hope. Researched and curated by Avram Mlotek and Zalman Mlotek (who also arranged the music) and directed by Matthew “Motel” Didner, Amid Falling Walls is a sometimes devastating, sometimes uplifting revue comprising Yiddish songs and poems written by Jews living under the Nazi reign of terror.

Yael Eden Chanukov and Mikhl Yashinsky

Amid Falling Walls begins with a pre-show montage (projection design Brad Peterson) of vibrant Jewish life in Europe before World War II, despite prevalent antisemitism, followed by the theme song from a theatrical revue staged in the Vilna ghetto in July 1942 (“Korene Yorn Un Vey Tsu Di Teg”/”Years of Grain and Woeful Days”). It ends with “Mir Leben Eybik!”/”We Live Forever”) a joyful and defiant reminder of the thousands of years Jews have survived, persevered and triumphed. There are also folksongs, satirical songs and even a tango.

Daniella Rabbani and Jacob Ben-Shmuel

But most of what we hear during this 80–minute show are cries of agony, courage and hope. Songs with titles like “Hold On,” “Give a Blessing to Your Child” and “Springtime.” They are delivered with great passion by the dedicated cast: Jacob Ben-Shmuel, Yael Eden Chanukov, Abby Goldfarb, Eli Mayer, Daniella Rabbani, Steven Skybell, Mikhl Yashinsky, and Rachel Zatkoff, backed by the orchestra, sitting onstage behind a diaphanous curtain, and directed by curator/arranger  Mlotek.

Rachel Zatcoff and Eli Mayer

When the performers are not singing, they tell us stories of terror and hope. Children burrow into holes to emerge on the other side of the ghetto. People rejoice in the mistaken belief that America is coming to the rescue.

The Company

The show is enhanced by dance routines choreographed by Tamar Rogoff, who does an excellent job in limited space. It is illustrated by photos of those who lived and died during the Holocaust, projected on screens lining the sides of the house. Although there isn’t much scenery, Izzy Fields’ costumes take us back to mid-20th century Europe with colorful precision. And for the many who don’t speak Yiddish, the poems and songs are translated into English and Russian in surtitles above the stage.

Daniella Rabbani with the Company

Folksbeine has given us many extraordinary works over the past few years, most recently Harmony, currently at Broadway’s Barrymore Theatre. But there’s something special about Amid Falling Walls. It might be the irony that while Jewish–American songwriters like Rodgers and Hart, Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern were writing musicals for the American stage, European Jews were writing songs for survival. The first group achieved great fame. The second has fallen through the cracks of history.