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Title details for Exodus by Kate McAll - Available

Exodus

The Shanghai Jews

by Kate McAll
Edita Brychta
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

As Jews tried to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s, they faced unthinkable roadblocks in obtaining exit visas. And while they were denied entry in one country after another, a bureaucratic oddity enabled some of them to flee to an unlikely destination: Shanghai, China. In this LATW original commission, playwright Kate McAll used the survivors' own words to create a narrative of people starting their lives over in a completely new land.

Funding for this presentation is provided in part by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and The I. Michael Kasser Trust: Michael and Beth Kasser.

Special thanks to Prof. Steve Hochstadt for his generosity in sharing his research and recordings to help create this work.

Recorded at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in June 2023.

Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson

Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, starring:

  • Edyta Brychta as Lisbeth Loewenberg
  • Michael Canavan as Herbert Greening
  • Shannon Cochran as Ilse Greening
  • Arye Gross as Gerard Kohbieter
  • Anna Mathias as Trude Reisman
  • Alan Shearman as Paul Reisman
  • André Sogliuzzo as Ernest Culman
  • Joanne Whalley as Melitta Colland

    Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson

    Recording Engineers: Mark Holden and Charles Carroll

    Sound Design: Mark Holden

    Editing and Mixing Engineer: Charles Carroll

    Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin

    • Creators

    • Publisher

    • Release date

      October 5, 2023

    • Formats

      • OverDrive Listen audiobook

        • ISBN: 9781682661796
        • File size: 41583 KB
        • Duration: 01:26:37

    • Languages

      • English

    • Reviews

      • AudioFile Magazine
        Those interested in the Holocaust have probably heard about the German and Austrian Jews who escaped to Shanghai but may not know much about their experiences. This play, recorded from a live performance by Los Angeles Theatre Works, draws on the testimony of some of the refugees in a montage created by Kate McAll to bring that episode to life. There's no point in calling out individual actors since they are all wonderful with accents and emotions. Each member of the cast takes on the persona of one of the Shanghai Jews, very effectively telling their story from the decision to go to Shanghai to the decision to leave when the war ends. Some listeners will want to keep a tissue handy. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2023 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
      • Library Journal

        March 1, 2024

        Among the many histories of World War II, one largely left untold has been that of the nearly 20,000 Jews who escaped Nazi persecution by traveling to Shanghai--one of the only places in the world to offer unlimited visas to Jewish refugees. McAll's original docudrama vocalizes these important stories, with actors performing dialogue from interviews with eight survivors, conducted in the 1990s. A long-married German couple remembers making a life together in a foreign city as newlyweds, while a man recounts arriving in Shanghai as a 16-year-old magician, alone save for his community of fellow refugees. If anything feels lost in the docudrama, directed by Anna Lyse Erikson, it is the nuances of the refugees' relationship to Shanghai itself, which is conspicuously truncated within the play's 87-minute run time. Nevertheless, with powerful narratives and realistic performances, this is a work worth experiencing and an important step toward enlightening audiences about a piece of history at risk of being forgotten. VERDICT A short but compelling docudrama that breathes life into the accounts of a too-little-discussed population of Holocaust survivors in Shanghai. Share with educators and general audiobook listeners seeking accounts of Jewish refugees or World War II history.--Robin Chin Roemer

        Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

    subjects

    Languages

    • English

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