MICHELLE KHOLOS BROOKS
This award-winning playwright’s new work is based on a true story
and a playwright introduce the shows they’re taking north
MY PLAY, Hitler’s Tasters is about the young German women who were conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. It’s based on true events. I heard about this story quite by accident and it hit me with tremendous force. It pushed all my buttons of concern — the way young women are treated as expendable, how children are sacrificed during wartime, and how, when a dictator is finished dividing up and devouring the “other,” he always, always turns on his own people.
I’m fortunate that the play got picked up by a number of theatres very quickly, so I got to see readings in a few cities with different casts. That really helped me dial down into to the essential elements of this play. There is no substitute for hearing live humans acting out the voices in your head.
Hitler’s Tasters is described as a dark comedy, but it is not comic in the traditional sense. There are not a lot of “yuks” or silly circumstances. I take this subject matter deeply seriously and I am particularly concerned about the level of Holocaust denial that seems rampant right now. For many young people, especially in the US where I’m from, World War Two is very firmly in the rearview mirror.
I use humour, and also anachronisms in the play to make it more emotionally relatable, especially to young people. I did not set out to write a comedy, but the situations
that present themselves due to the innocence of the girls, and due to the outrageous circumstances, can’t help but lend themselves to humour — albeit dark humour. Mark Twain said, “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” Sometimes when circumstances are indescribably awful, humour is the only power we’ve got
In Edinburgh I am very curious to see how an international audience reacts to Hitler’s Tasters. World War II is not as distant for you as it is for Americans.
I was essentially brought up as High Holiday Jew. As the comedian Sarah Silverman says, I was a little more “ish” than “Jew”. When I had my son, I wanted him to have a barmitzvah that had great meaning for him — not to just go through the motions like I did. In the tradition of Judaism, I wanted him to question and find meaning. Therein is what I most love about being Jewish. We are encouraged to question. This is an essential part of me and an essential part of my writing.
I don’t know how much reporting there was in the UK about last year’s shooting up of a synagogue in Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It just so happens that Squirrel Hill was the community where my great grandparents settled after escaping the pogroms in Russia. I was hit with the full realisation that it doesn’t matter if I feel more “ish” than “Jew.” When it comes to the oppressors of this world, I will always
Michelle Kholos Brooks to live with, we continuously audition sparks of a notion to hear how the language sounds. You’ve got to feel sorry for Rashi’s wife. That constant stream of commentary must have been unbearable.
You can imagine his teenage daughters rolling their eyes, their mother taking another deep breath as her learned husband tried to unpack any possible reason why she’d made meatloaf on a Tuesday.
Was the slightly burned crust a sign of longing for the reconstruction of the holy Temple? Or a hint that maybe he, Rashi, should have
be seen as a Jew first. My choice is to let them define what that is or take it for myself. I’ve decided to take it.
I was recently made a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, Scocroft Center for Strategy and Security. It’s a think tank out of the US that is has some interest in translating national security and military issues to the general public. In service to my fellowship, I am writing a play called, War Words. This piece consists of personal stories from people I’ve interviewed who have served or who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the US there is an enormous chasm between the people who serve and those of us who can’t imagine doing that kind of work. The goal is to bridge that gap a bit. These personal stories are woven into monologues and will be read on-book, very much in the spirit of the Vagina Monologues.I even have members of the RAF and the Royal Marines! This project has sincerely opened my eyes. It’s thrilling to be a part of it.
I was once in Edinburgh for about two hours and I swore I would come back sometime during Fringe. Coming with Hitler’s Tasters is the best possible way to return. Unfortunately, I have been so busy making adjustments to the script and securing plans for my family to be away from home for a month, that I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of shows I want to investigate. I am looking forward to the long flight over to dig through the programme and start putting checkmarks next to everything I want to see. I suspect there will not be enough days in the month!
Hitler’s Tasters is at Greenside @ Infirmary Street, August 2 to 24 made the dinner himself ? Perhaps the substitution of matzah meal for breadcrumbs reminds us that Pesach is always closer than you think (263 days to go but who’s counting?) What does this teach us… and is it funny?
Mrs Rashi and my husband should get together and go bowling.
‘Hinayni!’ is at the Underbelly, Bristo Square 31st July-26th August (not Saturdays)
‘It’s No Job For A Nice Jewish Girl’ is at the Banshee Labyrinth August 7, 12, 14, 19 and 21
USING his time playing Daddy Pig in the stage production of Peppa Pig as a starting point, comedian Philip Simon’s show Who’s the Daddy Pig? goes on to explore this cartoon dad’s influence as a paternal role model while addressing modern parenting issues when raising two sons in a post #MeToo era; answering the crucial question: “Can everything by solved while jumping in muddy puddles?”
is on at Banshee Labyrinth - Chamber Room from August 3 to 26.
SIMON also co-hosts JewO-Rama, with Aaron Levene. Showcasing the best in Jewish comedy at the Fringe, there’s a different line up every day.
is on at Whistlebinkies August 3-25
CIVIL servant turned cabaret star, Nigel Osner is back in Edinburgh with a new show taking a quizzical look at the challenges and opportunities for those no longer young. Osner illustrates his theme with original songs and stories by male and female characters, including a rich designer who falls for his hunky gardener and the woman driven mad by her companion on a river cruise down the Danube.
is at the Sweet Novotel August 2 – 18
NEW York based Emmy Blotnick, is bringing her show Party Nights to Edinburgh for the first time.
Stand-up, actress and writer Blotnick has appeared on Conan and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.She says her humour can be summed up by one photo, of a “human menorah”, Nicki Minaj was paid approximately $400,000 to appear at a New York City bar mitzvah, where she was photographed flanked by eight 13-year-old Jewish boys.
is at the Underbelly Buttercup July 31 to August 21
HOLLYWOOD comes to Edinburgh as Danny Pudi and Gayle Rankin take to the stage in Four Woke Baes by one of America’s most acclaimed playwrights, Jonathan Caren (Gypsy, Netflix; Rise, NBC; A Million Little Things, ABC). Multi-award-winning Teddy Bergman directs this UK premiere which considers just how liberal “woke” boys really are when they’re alone together, out in nature, beers in hand.
is at the Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Button) from August 1
IVOR Dembina’s at Edinburgh for the seventh consecutive year, performing some of his favourite kosher gags alongside his personal take on the life of the modern Jewish comic
Old Jewish Jokes is at the Laughing Horse @Finnegan’s Wake August 1 – 25
AWARD-WINNING comedian Joe Bor tells the story of the friendship between his grandfather (world-renowned town planner, Walter Bor) and his grandfather’s best friend (world-renowned comedy actor, Herbert Lom) and their journey from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to the UK
The Story of Walter and Herbert is at the Underbelly, George Square August 1 - 25
IF you love impro, Ben van de Velde is your man – “the master of audience interaction”, according to one critic, with “impressive spontaneity” according to another. Expect thrillers, romances, ghost stories and more freewheeling flights of fancy.
Ben Van de Velde - Fablemaker is at the Laughing Horse @32 Below August 1-13 and 15 – 25
TAKING your children to Edinburgh? Don’t miss Louis Pearl, aka The Amazing Bubble Man who explores the breathtaking dynamics of bubbles, from square bubbles to rocket bubbles, with science, comedy and music intermixed. But get in quickly the bubble man has been at the Fringe for 12 years and always sells out.
The Amazing Bubble Man is at the Underbelly, George Square August 1-25