Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT
through April 26, 2015
by Bernadette Johnson
One needn’t be an accomplished musician or even an
aficionado of classical music to be fully enraptured by the virtuosity of Mona
Golabek, the sole performer in this musical recounting of the life of Lisa
Jura, one of three daughters in a middle-class Jewish family in wartime Vienna.
Golabek is not an actress, but she has taken to the stage to
recount a story that is near and dear to her—that of her mother’s painful
separation from her family via the Kindertransport, a World War II program to
relocate Jewish children, unaccompanied, to the relative safety of England,
where they were placed with relatives, host families or in group homes.
No, Golabek is not an actress (a drawback at times, since
words are lost due to her soft-spokenness), but rather an expressive
storyteller who uses great music—Grieg, Mozart, Debussy, Chopin, Beethoven et
al.—to convey the heartbreak of separation, the pathos, the joy, the drama, as
well as the conviction, that defined Jura’s life journey.
“Hold on to your music. It will be your best friend,” Jura’s
mother told her, and Jura shared the power of these words in the piano lessons
she passed on to her own daughter, sharing the dreams and the hopes that
sustained her despite the fears and the hardships.
With the help of a Steinway concert grand, Golabek
seamlessly pieces together the narrative and music of her mother’s life.
Oversized gilded frames form the backdrop to a simple set
consisting of gold-trimmed black steps and platforms that Golabek ascends and
descends as she addresses the audience. These frames become screens on which
Andrew Wilder and Greg Sowizdrzal have skillfully projected historical scenes
that underscore the narrative. Unfortunately, the projections are less clear
from the back rows of the theatre.
The best vantage point for fully appreciating Gobalek’s
piano renditions is definitely house center, where one can watch her fingers as
they fly over the keys.
