IMAGINE THIS A musical in 2 acts by Glen Berenbeim. Lyrics by David Goldsmith. Lyrics by Shuki Levy New London Theatre - 19th November, 2008. Closed 20the December, 2008 (season) SYNOPSIS The Setting: Warsaw, Poland | The Time: 31 August 1939 - Late Winter 1942 ACT I IMAGINE THIS opens on a dark stage, lit only by a “ghost light”. A halo of light reveals a toy carousel and REBECCA WARSHOWSKY as she remembers life before the war. Darkness turns to daylight and Rebecca’s family appears: her father, DANIEL WARSHOWSKY, the charismatic head of a Polish theatre company; her mother, Daniel’s wife and leading lady, HANNAH; Rebecca’s 10 year old brother, LEON; the comic acting duo of Daniel’s sister SARAH and her husband MAX; and Rebecca’s grandfather, Daniel and Sarah’s father, ADOLPH, a renowned Shakespearean actor. What a glorious day it was, that last day of Summer, August 31st, 1939 before the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1st of that year. Fast forward two and a half years to the ghetto in Warsaw. Daniel and his family along with 450,000 other Polish Jews have been imprisoned behind stone walls topped by barbed wire. In the abandoned train depot where the Warshowsky family had taken refuge after their theatre was bombed, they and the other cold and hungry members of the acting company – IZZY, a comic from Berlin; OTTO, a German film actor; LOLA, a chorus girl; JAN, the son of a Rabbi; and JACOB, a young Polish actor – prepare to rehearse. Daniel has written a musical about Masada, the ancient Judean mountain where 980 rebels held 10,000 Roman soldiers at bay – a story to inspire his audiences. ADAM, a resistance fighter, suddenly bursts into the building, looking to escape from the Nazis chasing him. Daniel quickly hides Adam’s gun and instructs him to pretend to be one of the actors. When CAPTAIN BLICK and his soldiers enter to search the premises and discover Jacob removing Adam’s gun from from where is had been hidden, BLICK has Jacob arrested. Adam has no choice but to keep up the subterfuge if he’s not to betray the Warshowskys for giving him shelter. So after Jacob is dragged away Adam is forced to play the leading part opposite Rebecca. As they begin to rehearse, they find that one thing on which they can agree is there’s no place for love in a world like theirs. However, as the days go by leading up to opening night, both young people start to experience a strong attraction to each other. The moment approaches for Daniel’s show to start. The actors are preparing while Adam argues with Daniel that it’s pointless to put on plays while the Nazis are bent on destroying them. Rebecca shares Adam’s disillusionment. She says they’re just playing into the Nazis’ hands, keeping the ghetto entertained while everyone starves to death. Daniel argues that they can still feed the souls of their ghetto audience with hope. As the curtain rises on Daniel’s play of “Masada”, he addresses his ghetto audience, asking them to see more than bare floorboards and starving actors, to close their ears to those who say they can’t survive, to come with him on a journey two thousand years ago... Jerusalem 70 A.D. A courageous band of rebels led by the freedom fighter ELEAZAR (played by Daniel) makes their way to King Herod’s former fortress, a desert mountain known as Masada, created onstage by the members of Daniel’s acting company with tables, chairs, ironing boards and all manner of found objects. As they arrive on the “mountain” a celebration breaks out, TAMAR (played by Rebecca) dreams of the handsome Roman General SILVA (played by Adam) she had met in the Jerusalem marketplace. Although the connection
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