As Long As We Are Breathing by Diane Samuels, the Arcola Studio, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 to 1 March 2025, 2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Lidia Crisifulli.

As Long As We Are Breathing by Diane Samuels, the Arcola Studio, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 to 1 March 2025,

2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“About surviving..”

Miriam Friedman was a child in Slovakia during the Holocaust. Her father disappeared, one of her sisters ended up a victim of the experiments the Nazis carried out on children, which, badly damaged, she survived. Her story is one worth telling. The problem is Diane Samuels' dramatisation. As a piece of theatre it simply does not work hence the stars. As a story it deserves 4**** - if, indeed, stars mean anything. In terms of a play they are that something is well worth seeing and this play, its subject matter apart, does not merit them .As a narrative it drags, is confusing and the use of her subsequent pursuit of yoga as the framing gimmick is a mistake. Being asked to shut one's eyes and breath and all the rest by a charming middle aged lady – Friedman – while a younger actor plays the child Friedman and charges about doing Yoga postures and overacting madly as a male musician plays various instruments – becomes wearisome. This is not a reflection on the players, who do their best with their material, but on the play. The daughter of Solomon and Olga Manheimmer Miriam, the youngest of six, or Eva, as she was called then, was born in 1934 in Bratislava. The Nazis did not invade Slovakia but they did in effect take over the country and her parents managed to send some of their children away, Miriam and her mother remained in hiding in apartments belonging to friends. The family mostly survived and after the war she came to Britain, married, and took up yoga to address the back pain she suffered as a result of a childhood cooped up in hiding. The play is about her reflections on what happened to her as a child, about survival, forgiveness and on living her subsequent life to the full. She is quite clearly remarkable. The problem is that as a vehicle for all that, while it may work for some, the multi sensory approach to her story did not work for me and that presents difficulty in reviewing it as a work of theatre. So two stars it is.

Cast

Zoe Goriely – Eva

Caroline Gruber – Miriam

Matthew James Hinchcliffe – Actor/Musician

Creatives

Director – Ben Caplan

Set & Costume Design – Isabella Van Braeckel

Lighting Designer – Tom Turner

Sound Designer & Music Editor – Jon Fiber

Video Ddsigner – Douglas Baker

Movement Director – Jasmin Colangelo