On the Fringe: Who Will Carry the Word?

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On the Fringe: Who Will Carry the Word?

POSTED: Tuesday, September 1, 2009, 4:29 PM

Filed Under: Arts On the Fringe

John Hoey

Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre is keeping super-busy this Live Arts/Fringe season: Not only is reality-show-parodying Kill Me Now a Live Arts headliner (think fake So You Think You Can Dance), the troupe is also co-producing Who Will Carry the Word?, an intense, movement-based play about 20 women in Auschwitz, trying to make it out alive. Talk about polar opposites.

Sez the show's press release:

Based upon the true story of Charlotte Delbo, Who Will Carry The Word? depicts the lives of 20 women sharing a barracks in Auschwitz.' Their goal: to keep the strongest of them alive so that someone can share their experiences with the world.' A celebration of the human spirit, Who Will Carry The Word? is a sobering and very moving portrait of the resilience of ordinary people placed in extraordinary ' and in this case, horrifying ' circumstances.

Who Will Carry The Word?, written in 1966, attempts here what so many Holocaust plays avoid: to describe the life inside the concentration camps with an unflinching eye.' As a survivor of Auschwitz, Delbo draws on austere poetic language and imagery to dramatize her eyewitness account of the horrors she and her contemporaries experienced.' The title Who Will Carry The Word? itself indicates Delbo's fascination with the idea of bearing witness to something indescribable and altogether unspeakable.' The 20 women giving voice to Delbo's language and observations not only carry the weight of the playwright's provocative words, but also the responsibility of honoring the over-six million Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled, and others murdered by the Nazis in the 1940s.

Who Will Carry The Word? (co-produced by Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre and OtherWORDS Theater) sold out during its run at Temple last year, so we suggest flocking early to the box office ' shows don't start till the 13th, but you'll want to get your tickets ahead of time.

Sept. 13 at 2, 4 and 7 p.m.; Sept. 15 and 16, 7 p.m.; Sept. 17 and 18, 7 and 9 p.m.; Sept. 19, 4 and 7 p.m.; $15, 2nd Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-413-1318, livearts-fringe.org.

Bethany formica

Posted 2009-09-02 12:31:03

there is a mistake on the fringe site.  Melanie Stewart Dance theatre doesn't have anything to do with Who Will Carry the Word.  It must have been a typo in the guide.  Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre is producing Kill Me Now which opens this weekend.

Bethany formica

Posted 2009-09-02 12:32:37

Sorry.  I made a huge mistake.  melanie is in fact involved with this show.  sorry for my mistake.  go see this show too!!!!!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 4:29 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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