An alluring tale of an encapsulating moment in history.
From award-winning playwright Gail Louw, comes Blonde Poison, a multi-national production presented at The Playground Theatre in London as part of the Gail Louw season, running from 27 February-6 April. Directed by Fred Abrahamse, the cautionary tale opened to a largely full audience on a Tuesday evening.
A simple white backdrop and a cream chair reminiscent of high society, quite possibly symbolic of how Stella Goldschalg (performed by award winning actress Fiona Ramsey) sees herself – innocent, allowed for the focus to be on Stella as she dips the audiences toes into her life and her story, whilst she waits for an interview with an old friend, now a respected journalist. She recalls her times as a free-spirited lover, wife to several husbands and a devoted daughter. Humour breaks up the tale as we are taken deeper and deeper into Stella’s recounts of her life as a Jew, illegally living in Berlin during World War two, before her untimely imprisonment along with her parents.
Stella ultimately betrays friends and family, the price you pay for survival and freedom soon catches up to Stella as she starts to rationalise her involvement as a “greifer” to the audience. Wrapped up in the pain of being a victim of persecution and knowingly sending people to their deaths, Stella asks the audience what else she could have done when faced with the deportation of her parents to the death camps. The accompaniment of sound at poignant moments made you feel like you were there, reliving Stella’s gut-wrenching past.
With a running time of 70 minutes, Fiona Ramsey’s performance of Stella is captivating, bringing the audience on a roller coaster of highs and lows during an encapsulating moment in history. Her delivery of humorous references was perfection to an otherwise heart-wrenching tale, particularly to the graphic recount of Stella’s imprisonment, persecution and escape.
A rather poignant tale of humanity and morality when faced with an unthinkable situation asks us what you would do to ensure you and your loved ones survived and would we, the audience, do any different?