By Matt Radz
The Gazette
Montreal playwright Attila Clemann's monodrama inspired by the wartime experiences of his step-grandfather, titled ... and Stockings for the Ladies, will headline Centaur's Wildside Festival in January.
Directed by Zach Fraser and performed by Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, the piece took Centaur's Off the Main prize at the Frankie Awards ceremony held at Parc des Ameriques to cap the 17th edition of the Montreal Fringe Festival.
Selected by a panel of Centaur judges as the festival's best anglo production, the Off the Main winner gets a Wildside gig at Centaur from Jan. 8 to 19, 2008.
First taged Friday, June 8, “ . . . and stockings for the ladies” ran in Montreal through to Saturday June 17.
In Toronto, the play may be seen at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Avenue.
It will run there from Friday, July 6, to Monday, July 9, a break for Tuesday, and then Wednesday, July 11, Friday, July 13, and Sunday, July 15.
Background
GERMANY, British Broadcasting Corporation, April 15, 1945 — British troops have entered the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
Inside the camp the horrified soldiers found piles of dead and rotting corpses and thousands of sick and starving prisoners kept in severely overcrowded and dirty compounds.
Belsen, near Hanover in Germany, is the first concentration camp to be liberated by the British. Details of the conditions inside are likely to horrify a public which until now has only heard limited descriptions from the camps in Poland freed by the Red Army.
The first British soldiers who entered Bergen-Belsen have described seeing a huge pile of dead, naked women's bodies within full view of several hundred children held at the camp.
To the annoyance of their commanding officers, RCAF Squadron Leader Ted Aplin and RCAF Sergeant Stanley Winfield broke through red tape to organize truckloads of food, medical supplies, and medical attention to alleviate the suffering of the Nazi victims.
With the post office in a shambles, Aplin used the good offices of the RCAF to help survivors make contact with relatives in Canada. The effort of these Canadians casts a heart-warming light on a living nightmare.
His grand stepson, Atilla Clemann, a Canadian actor, director, and playwright, has written a play drawn on archived material available in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa.
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