Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane - Essay Example

Mona Golabek in. The Pianist of Willesden Lane Based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen Adapted and directed by Hershey Felder I really had no idea about the background of this play and was very impressed with the one-woman show, touching piano solos, and the general history of Liza Mura's experience with WWII as told by her daughter, Mona Golabek. The theater itself was cozy and we still had a nice view of the stage from our Orchestra B seats in the back. I love this part of Addison St. with its other theaters, neon signs, cute porch stoops...it gives a slightly fancier "downtown" feel of bigger cities like NYC. Set in Vienna in 1938 and in London during the Blitzkrieg, The Pianist of Willesden Lane tells the true story of Lisa Jura, a young Jewish musician whose dreams are interrupted by the Nazi regime. In this poignant show, virtuoso Mona Golabek performs some of the world’s most beautiful piano music as she shares her mother’s riveting story of survival. Adapted and directed by Hershey Felder, Pianist is infused with hope and invokes the life-affirming power of music. In addition, Pianist" is the story of Golabek's mother, Holocaust and London Blitz survivor Lisa Jura - like her daughter, an accomplished concert pianist - which Golabek first told in her book "The Children of Willesden Lane" (written with Lee Cohen). It begins in 1938 as mentioned earlier in Vienna, with the talented 14-year-old piano student's family in the tightening noose of Hitler's anti-Jewish laws in Austria (already annexed by Germany). It ends - well, we can't tell you that can we? Though you know Jura must have survived, there are many elements of suspense involved. Berkeley Rep offers an advisory about any stage effect of potential concern to patrons’ health. This show has none. We don’t offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any concerns about content, please contact the box office. Mona Golabek doesn't just tell a great story. Seated at a concert grand, she accompanies her tale with music that infuses, illustrates, amplifies and elevates "The Pianist of Willesden Lane" to make the personal universal and another generation so personal that you can't help but feel your heart swell in response. Great music can do that. Skillfully blended with an affecting tale, it can do even more. If there was a dry eye in the house at Wednesday's Berkeley Repertory Theatre opening, my own were too filled with tears to see it. Each piece of music tells a story, Golabek's mother told her. She learned her mother's story along with keyboard technique in her piano lessons. Director Hershey Felder, who adapted Golabek's book for stage - and whose Eighty-Eight Entertainment is a co-producer - builds on that connection to shape the play and intensify particular scenes. Then he adds well-selected visuals to the sensory package. From the beginning, Jura's dream is to make her concert debut with Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. Felder, best-known for his popular solo shows about composers (he performed "George Gershwin Alone" at the Rep last summer), uses the concerto to frame "Pianist" from beginning to end (Cohen and Mona, 45-49). The first movement - brilliantly, probingly performed by Golabek - sets up the fraught conditions in 1938 Vienna. The second intensifies the dramatic perils of the Blitz. The third brings the piece to its passionate resolution. In between, Golabek's beautifully rendered pieces by Beethoven, Debussy and Chopin enhance the families and Vienna's Jews worsening fortunes - as told by Golabek as the young Jura - and her escape through the Kindertransport program. Felder heightens the impact with archival photos and newsreel footage, projected in the large, antique gilt picture frames hanging about the midnight blue stage. Golabek doesn't convey the comfort of an actor, but she grows more assured and riveting as she traces Jura's life in London, assuming the voices of the men, women and other refugee children she lived and worked with. There's peril, glory and the anxiety of trying to maintain - and losing - contact with her parents and sisters in Vienna. There's a great sense of the hardships and communal spirit of London in the Blitz. There's romance, with men, yes, but more eloquently and passionately with the piano. When Golabek plays, her story comes alive in four or five dimensions. Her fingers flutter and fly over the keys, making the notes seem to dance like rays of moonlight or storm the beaches at Normandy. A bit of "Strike Up the Band" and "These Foolish Things" evokes a room full of troops. A Bach-Beethoven-Chopin-Scriabin Royal Academy audition is an astonishing tour de force of technique. You may never hear "Clair de Lune" the same way again. And the Grieg concerto has taken on intimations of indomitable humanity I'd never heard in it before. Ranging from Moliere’s comedy "A Doctor in Spite of Himself" - which I count as 1 of my top-faves, to the dark comedy "Wild Bride" - which counts as 1 of my top non-faves, to all the dramas & musicals in between, Berkeley Rep has been a source of experimental & professional theater alike & for that reason, I'm happy to now count myself among the Season Ticket Subscribers Most recently we had the absolute grand fortune of seeing Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen in Harold Pinter's "NO MAN'S LAND". This was another pre-Broadway production & the Bay Area was lucky enough to house their staging process.  I'm thinking this Play is either about a man w/ Alzheimer's who is being taken advantage of by these 2 "caretakers" or it's about a drunk man (Patrick) who gets totally incoherent  & doesn't recognize Ian's character - another drunk who was once a school chum of Patrick's but who's also fallen on hard times.   Maybe Ian is just a con artist who pretends to be a well-known friend so insinuate himself into Patrick's life. Just as confusing as the last time I saw it in London, the intriguing, perplexing & mesmerizing No Man's Land was another night of theatrical awesomeness & Berkeley Rep was the perfect powerhouse of a theatre to host this monumental event Work Cited Cohen, Lee and Mona, Golabek. The Children of Willesden Lane. New York: North Atlantic Books, 2013. Print. Read More