Main Street Theatre's 'Memoriam': Innovative, Striking, and Heartbreaking

HOUSTON, TX -- If you have ever visited a Nazi Concentration Camp, and I have, then you know it’s an intense and humbling experience. It creates a memory. It wraps you in suffering. It makes you appreciate those who survived the ordeal, and devote a remembrance to those who didn’t. The Main Street Theatre in Rice Village has a striking production of ‘MEMORIAM,’ a play by Noga Flaishon, about a Jewish Nazi Concentration Camp Survivor, whose granddaughter Rachel, a UK sales executive, is in the business of buying and selling memories, and wishes to source her grandmother’s recollections of her terrible time in a Polish camp during World War II. But discussions with her brother and her boss grow tense and combative, leaving doubt if the project is even feasible at all. Directed by Julia Oppenheim, The Main Street Theatre was ecstatic to host the World Premiere of MEMORIAM this past Saturday, with the playwright herself in attendance. It’s an emotionally plausible sci-fi journey that requires a stiff upper lip, a steeled resolve, to absorb its true meaning and the challenges that Jews face even today. Memoriam is a reminder that what happened in the past is more than capable of repeating itself in the future. The tenseness about the relationship of the characters, yields to an atonement with some assertions left to the audience at its end.

The acting in Memoriam was nothing short of amazing! From the moment Julia Krohn (Rachel) walked on stage, she hooked the audience’s attention. I was impressed with the command of her lines, and the ease in how she played a confident and successful executive in a London firm, positive she is able to complete her objective; to a reluctant granddaughter, somewhat estranged from her family at first; but in seeing the horrors her Bubbe suffered, she grows closer to her brother and grandmother in time, doubting her initial assertions. Dain Geist (David), plays the brother of Rachel, and he is very protective of his Bubbe, Yiddish for ‘grandmother.’ The conversations between the siblings get very loud and intense, even to the point of physical violence. Geist’s portrayal of David was admirable, ramping up the intensity of the scene, instilling emotion in each audience member, wondering if he is able to maintain his self control, until he loses it. But there is hope. Chelsey Ann Santoro (Rivka Leibowitz, or Bubbe), plays Rachel and David’s Grandmother, a woman who wants to keep her family together, even after she is gone. Having seen unimaginable destruction in the camps she wants only peace, but is willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of her grandchildren, by giving up her memories. Dillon Dewitt (Chris), plays Rachel’s boss at Memoriam, the memory firm she works for, Chris is an easy going supervisor willing to defer judgement to his underling, until the situation becomes unobtainable. Sammi Sicinski (Becky) plays a small, but important role, as a source to the memories of a difficult and painful childbirth, which allows Rachel to explain what Memoriam is all about to the audience to bring them up to speed. A second scene shows a few flaws in the firm’s service by not reinstalling the complete memory of the pain of the event, which corresponds in a way with Bubbe’s character to leave the memories without editing.

Memoriam Director Julia Oppenheim, took Noga Flaishon’s vision and made it possible on the stage at The Main Street Theater, and with the playwright in the house, I’d classify it as a fitting tribute to the success of her work. Since Main Street Rice Village is in an arena stage layout, and depending on the view of the audience, one actor or another may have been a little hard to view, but the loss of view was only momentary.

The set was a simple, yet an ingenious design. A two-tiered desk, with chairs, that depending on its location was either in an office, flat or home, the top portion of the desk offered different configurations for different spaces, such as in an ‘L’ counter space, in one of the flats. Above the set, was a 360-degree projection board for whatever type of mood the director was trying to portray, and the first one I have seen in action on stage. Set Designer Lee Barker deserves heavy praise for offering a complex style in regards to the set with quick changeovers from Rodney Walzworth and his crew. The costumes were appropriate and modern, and Lighting, especially the 360-degree video projection board, drew the eye of the audience members, with less focus on the changeovers. Sound also hit their marks with the television remote, the landline phones, etc. Kudos to Lighting Designer John Smetak, Sound Designer Yezmininne Zepeda, and Projections Designer Amelia Rico.

Memoriam, for me, was a great hit for my initial visit to this theatre, and I was not disappointed. The acting was exceptional, and I was amazed it all came together in just two weeks. Julia Krohn has one-heck of a memory, being able to learn so much material in such a short period and present it as if she had known it all her life, and she did it with flying colors. In fact kudos to Dain, Chelsey Ann, Dillon, and Sammi, for pulling off a stunner. Besides the little note about an actor or two being out of sight momentarily dependent on where an audience member was seated, I find Memoriam to be an overall solid production. I’d recommend this play to the relatives of Holocaust victims/survivors, or siblings who have difficulty communicating. The play had a special meaning for me, because 25 years ago, I had cancer, and I really looked like a Holocaust victim. Bald. Skinny. Weak. A tube stuck up my nose. Unable to eat/drink for summer ‘99, barely 110 lbs, with still more to lose. It was as if I was suffering in my own little concentration camp. And many a night I thought of those in concentration and death camps, shivering and thinking, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” I believe in my heart of hearts this play is worthy of your attention. It’s not a quitter. Noga Flaishon certainly is not. Memoriam is a survivor. Come and see it, watch it carefully, and re-awaken your Spirit.

Memoriam runs through April 19.

For more information and tickets, visit: mainstreettheater.com/mainstage or call 713-524-6706

Main Street Theatre - Rice Village is located at: 2540 Times Blvd.

Ruben can be reached at: ruben@montgomerycountynews.net