To keep a family together or let a child travel to live with strangers and possibly survive the gathering winds of the Holocaust. It was a cruel choice faced by German-speaking Jewish families around 1939, just before the Nazis began their world war. The Movement for the Care of Children from Germany -- called "Kindertransport" -- began in England, eventually settling more than 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children with English families. Those children rarely saw their own families again.
Diane Samuel's Kindertransport is a remarkably restrained play, given its emotional subject matter. It concerns three generations of women affected by Kindertransport; each resents it in her own way. Eva was 10 years old when she made the journey, barely understanding the reason for it. Turpin High School student Katarina Hughes gives the role an infectious energy and abandon, without ever succumbing to the temptation to overplay the character's childishness.
Eva's mother Helga (Mindy Siebert) is a formidable stage presence. Broken-hearted over losing her daughter, she never shows her emotion. Siebert is so vocally and physically committed to the character that you almost believe her when she denies all the dangers of the journey.
Lil (Andrea Sayre-Brook) is Eva's adoptive mother, a fun-loving Englishwoman who is impossible for Eva (or for us) to resist. Sayre-Brook's characterization is exuberant and comic, but always focuses on the needs of her adopted daughter. She plays the part in two different time frames -- during the war and much later. Her body, her voice and even her face age without the aid of makeup.
The women are rounded out by Eva as an adult (Adrianne Underhill) and Faith, her daughter (Amy Harping). These roles are comparatively underwritten and less heroically played as a result.
Kindertransport is about the changing and enduring relationships between mothers and daughters. Carefully directed by Thom McLaughlin, the play would be engrossing and entertaining even if the subject matter did not demand our attention. Grade: B+
KINDERTRANSPORT, presented by the Ovation Theatre Company, continues through Sunday.
