{"id":18705,"date":"2019-11-25T12:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T20:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=18705"},"modified":"2019-11-25T12:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T20:50:24","slug":"alices-gift-a-simple-lesson-about-true-sustenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/11\/25\/alices-gift-a-simple-lesson-about-true-sustenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice\u2019s Gift<\/em> a simple lesson about true sustenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

I felt when I left the house tonight that I could easily have stayed home and been content listening to the rain on the roof with a cat on my lap. Still, I had asked my editor a month ago if I could review Alice\u2019s Gift<\/em>; I was intrigued by the subject matter. It turns out I was right to trust my instincts and make the journey out to see this play.<\/p>\n

Directed by Kate Rubin, Alice\u2019s Gift<\/em>\u00a0(which was performed for two nights last weekend) is a musical play written by Canadian playwright Elisabeth Wagner that’s inspired by the story of musician and Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer. Alice\u2019s Gift <\/em>tells in a memoir style how Alice survived years in World War II by playing piano recitals in the ghetto camp Theresienstadt. By the time she died in 2014, Herz-Sommer was 110 years old, the world\u2019s oldest Holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lina de Guevara as Alice in Alice’s Gift<\/em> (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The play\u2019s set is Alice\u2019s living room, while the audience members are taken on a touching if somewhat mismatched journey through her experiences. The idea behind the play is that Alice has been asked the question \u201cHow did you survive?\u201d Alice, played by Lina de Guevara, survived the terrors of the war because of the music that she continually played, and de Guevara really captures that essence of Alice\u2019s character, showing eloquence,strength, and humour when she’s asked to remember something horrifying.<\/p>\n

Alice’s recollections are not linear at all\u2014she keeps breaking off and remembering pieces of music that have been meaningful to her. The music has actually kept her intact, emotionally and physically, and has no doubt served as an outlet for Alice for most of her life. Wagner not only wrote the play, but also proves herself to be an accomplished piano player in it, playing Bach, Chopin, and Beethoven, while often sitting alongside Alice and accompanying her storytelling.<\/p>\n

Although the play is one act, with only one speaking role, it still overflows with emotion and character. I couldn\u2019t help but be pulled into Alice\u2019s world, learning about her childhood, her years in the concentration camp, her marriage and child rearing, as well as her living in Israel after the war.<\/p>\n

Alice\u2019s story, accompanied by the sincerity of the piano playing, only reinstates itself as the play finishes. In one of her final moments with the audience she explains, without a hint of bitterness, that her experiences, all of them, have only made her life richer. Now that\u2019s something to chew on for a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I felt when I left the house tonight that I could easily have stayed home and been content listening to the rain on the roof with a cat on my lap. Still, I had asked my editor a month ago if I could review Alice\u2019s Gift; I was intrigued by the subject matter. It turns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t