What do a Jewish boy from Poland, an Armenian boy, a Cambodian girl and a girl from Sarajevo have in common?
In most cases, the answer might be “Not much,” but Mark Edelman’s new play, “Four Children,” revolves around the commonalties of four real children who experienced the horrors and atrocities of genocide.
The play features excerpts from the diaries of four budding young writers – ages 12 to 15 – who lived during the Holocaust and genocides in Armenia, Cambodia and Sarajevo and kept diaries of their experiences.
“These are stories that I felt were important, not to diminish the impact of the Holocaust… but also to tell these stories of people who faced similar tragedies and situations,” Edelman said. “They were Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Asian, African, European… They’re from all parts of the globe and all parts of humanity.”
“Four Children” premiered October 7, performed by the Kansas City Actors Theatre at City Stage in Union Station. The play was commissioned in conjunction with the “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” exhibition.
“When officials at Union Station first planned on hosting the world-renowned exhibit ‘Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away,’ they reached out to KCAT about programming something that would expand on the same themes and stories,” KCAT Artistic Committee Chair John Rensenhouse said in a press release. “Working with Theater League founder Mark Edelman—whose mother was a Holocaust survivor—we came up with this important new work.”
Edelman was contacted by Resenhouse in early January and had a first draft of the play written by May. When he first began researching ideas for the play, he read about diaries written by Holocaust survivors. That lead him to the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, where he came across a book that caught his attention - the diary of Dawid Sierakowiak. Dawid was a young boy in Poland whose family was sent to Auschwitz. His diary was found among the ashes of post-World War II rubble by a journalist after the war ended.
Edelman also found diaries and memoirs from young writers who had lived through other genocides, including a young lady who lived through Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and a girl who lived through the bombardment of Sarajevo. The oldest book was written by a boy whose family endured the Armenian genocide in 1915.
Edelman said he found each of these books – and the hellish experiences they detail – compelling.
“It’s a reminder for people that there are even more recent examples of man’s inhumanity and unless we pay attention, they’re going to happen again,” he said.
Victor Raider-Wexler, Vi Tran, Kathleen Warfel and Marisa Tejeda will read the diary entries of these young writers. Solo cello works selected and prepared by UMKC Conservatory professor Michael Mermagen will accompany the 70-minute production, performed without intermission. “Four Children” is recommended for audiences fourteen and older.
The experiences the children wrote about reminded him of the few stories his own mother told him about her brushes with the Holocaust. He recounted the story of how one day someone came to his mother's classroom and made her and a couple other students leave because they were Jewish.
The Armenian boy told a similar story, where all the students were told to leave the school. The girl from Cambodia wrote that one day the school was just closed.
Edelman said he made a point to include excerpts from the diary that shows how similar the experiences of each child was. The play begins when their lives are all normal and happy, but each act after that shows the slow progression of the impending genocides.
“You see it all fall apart. You see the first signs of distress, then it gets worse, then it gets really bad,” he said.
Although his name is on the play, Edelman doesn’t consider himself its writer.
“I like to say I am its curator,” he said. “90% of the words in this play were written by the four diarists, not me.”
“Four Children” will be performed Wednesday through Saturday nights at 7:30 pm with matinees on Wednesdays and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.kcactors.org. Patrons purchasing tickets through Union Station can receive a reduced rate when purchasing tickets to both the Auschwitz exhibition and “Four Children” at the same time.
