Kindertransport (NHB Modern Plays)
£8.90£10.40 (-14%)
Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life…
Between 1939 until the outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 Jewish children were taken from their families in Nazi-occupied Germany and sent to live with foster families in Britain. Diane Samuels’ seminal play, Kindertransport, imagines the fate of one such child.Kindertransport has been read and studied the world over.
Kindertransport won the 1992 Verity Bargate Award and was subsequently staged by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 1993. It also won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1993.
Since its premiere the play has been revived several times.
This edition includes several personal memoirs by German-born children whose lives were saved, and transformed, by the Kindertransport.
Set Text: Kindertransport is a set text for GCSE English Literature (AQA) and AS/A-Level English Literature (WJEC).
Also available: Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport: The author’s guide to the play, invaluable for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play.
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Additional information
| Publisher | 2nd edition (1 May 2008), Nick Hern Books |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 112 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 185459527X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1854595270 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 1.27 x 19.69 cm |
by Amazon Customer
The only issue I have with this book is that the page numbers vary to the paperback and so it’s a sight inconvenience when using in class. Otherwise a great purchase.
by Jo
The play is a harsh reality but at the same time quite moving.
An insight to another world. If you didn’t live it it’s hard to understand it.
by Amazon Customer
Bought on the second hand option, was already full of notes, which I like as you can use them to add to your own notes for revision if you have missed any points throughout the book. Only issue was the book was practically falling apart and pages kept coming loose. This was advertised “like new” which it most definitely wasn’t. Did the job though so can’t complain. Good value, great book
by Eddy Knasel
I read this very powerful play as a member of a Quaker group involved in planning events to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War One in 2014, highlighting the role of conscientious objectors in both WW1 and WW2. We hope to encourage a local secondary school to put on a production of this thought-provoking play which deals with complex issues of identity and abandonment in an appropriately nuanced way. There are no heroes, only victims – which is a fitting message to draw about any war.
by JaquiP
It is quite different, on so many levels, reading a play rather than reading a book. The underlying sadness of this play comes through in the dialogue, that is wonderful, of course, an achievement. Even without watching the play or feeling a connection to the cast, I know I am not alone in feeling and thinking that all plays, from Shakespeare to Pinter, and everything past and future are meant to be performed not flat dialogue on a page which can’t create the power of performance.
This is quite, to my surprise, a short play. I also can’t help feeling rightly or wrongly – probably wrongly – the subject could have been tackled a myriad of ways. It felt a little disappointing,and not the story perhaps, given the title, I was expecting. It felt more about survivor ‘s guilt than the story of The Kindertransport. But that is more to do with my response to the play than the play itself.
The facts and background that introduces the play was profoundly moving and thought provoking. Perhaps I need to reserve my opinion of the play until I have seen the production.
I was asked ,after joining my local theatre press team, to write a preview for the theatre’s newspaper for the play which is currently in rehearsal. I haven’t yet seen a rehearsal – but I will sit in on several, and speak to the cast and director before writing the preview. I also have tickets and will be taking my grand daughters. I have read a lot of books about the holocaust, but the theme or themes in this play are a new way of looking for me and will be thought provoking. For now, just to say, that though a short read, it’s left me slightly reeling. But, as always, it’s the younger and next generations who will make sense of the past. Thank goodness for the addition of the character of Faith to make sense of heritage and history. Maybe it could have gone on longer, it leaves many unanswered
questions but it left me with a sense of past and future so in that regard, worked well. In the light of more recent current events in British politics and current culture,it’s a timely reminder and a great play to be performed right now, again. The message doesn’t dim or date. It will also, I feel, as a play, albeit short, have something important to say to future generations.
by swan12
Good to see new plays arriving on the circuit and actually being performed to full houses. Background interview and writing process sections answer many questions and clarify a lot of what I suspected in the story line but which dramatically is never explicit.
by Customer
I saw this play several years ago and utterly loved it. Today, I reread the script and was struck again by how poignantly Samuels writes about a child being separated from her parents. The beauty of this play is that the consequences of the forced separation (though it was done through love) can be seen in multiple generations. This plays asks questions that are well worth asking, and it does so with wonderfully written characters that reach out and grab your heartstrings.
by HappyShopperABC
I am currently acting in this play, playing Evelyn, and decided I’d buy my own copy of the book because I’d heard the notes at the beginning (which we weren’t given) were extremely useful. Since then, it has travelled everywhere, including a Christmas Dinner Party! The forward my Samuels and the real Kindertransport experience stories at the front of the book are interesting and prove extremely useful to actors, trying to perform the difficult production. The play itself is beautiful and worth reading. It is a moving piece set in two different time periods, studying the effects of the horrors of the war and human relationships, amongst other touching and difficult topics. It is a joyful read. Having read other reviews about the pages falling out… it hasn’t happened to my copy nor my directors tatty and very well-annotated copy!