From Press Release
During the weeks I spent in Krakow, playing in Spilberg’s “Schindler’s List”, I realized that I have been carrying my father’s silent and secret burden; the murder of his mother and sister in the country I was staying in. My grandmother’s name was Roza, I was given the name Razia, in her memory.
THE DENTIST
By Chaim Marin and Razia Israely
Performed by Razia Israely
Adapted and directed by Malka Marin
Inspired by Dr. Gideon Greiff’s book We wept without tears
The Dentist is about the complex and loaded relationship between Rosi, a divorced and lonely physician and her father, a Holocaust survivor from Salonika, Greece. Rosi remembers a childhood marked by violent outbursts of rage and at the same time warm and loving expressions from her father.
Now at 50 she embarks on a journey of personal discovery, in pursuit of a missing piece of her father’s deeds in an Auschwitz crematorium. Her father’s imminent death becomes the summit of their reconciliation.
Razia Israely has performed in leading roles with all the prominent Israeli theatre companies since 1979.
Theatre: The Balcony, The Great Whore of Babylon, Everyone Wants to Live, Women of Troy, Orestea (both directed by Holk Freitag), Animal Farm, Hamlet, Kvetch (both directed by Steven Berkoff), Threepenny Opera, Iphigeneia at Aulis, On the Eve of Retirement, Crazy Head, The Blue Angel (directed by Peter James,The Crucible, Romeo and Juliet, Nuremberg, As a Cameleon (Wandering Cylinder Hat prize, 1986).
Film : Schindler’s List (directed by Steven Spielberg), Funeral of a Serpent, The Heritage, The Flying Camel, God’s Sandbox, Mucky Boera
Edinburgh 2009 Fringe Festival reviews:
Shatteringly powerful… one of the best things I’ve ever seen in the theater, drama of a rare and memorable quality. Israely gives a tour-de-force performance and her magnificent acting is matched by the superbly written and staged script. The Dentist’s theme of reconciliation and compassion in the face of unmitigated evil is fully realized in this deeply moving, unforgettable play. [Total Theatre.com]
The play should be applauded for bringing a lesser-known aspect of the unparalleled horror of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp “out of the closet” and humanizing an otherwise monstrous story.[Edinburgh Guide. Com ]
THE DENTIST
Rosi unveils her father’s dark past.
Wed, June 30 10:00 PM – 903
Sat, July 3 5:15 PM – 916
Mon, July 5 6:45 PM – 929
Tue, July 6 12:45 PM – 932
Thu, July 8 2:00 PM – 946
Sat, July 10 8:45 PM – 964
Sun, July 11 1:45 PM – 967
HELEN GARDINER PHELAN PLAYHOUSE
79A St George Street (South of Harbord)