with Julia Pascal

Join us as we hear from Dramatist and former Writer in Residence at the Wiener Holocaust Library Julia Pascal about her new play The Banality of Evil, running at the Arcola Theatre 7 October-7 November.

In May 1940, three German Jewish women are arrested in France – Hannah Arendt, who would become one of the 20th century’s most influential political theorists, the artist Charlotte Salomon, and the Communist schoolgirl Eva Daube. Branded “Undesirables” and transported to Camp Gurs, they find themselves among thousands of prisoners held by the state that once promised them refuge. As German forces advance, each woman must confront an impossible choice: stay and hope for liberation or risk her life to escape into a dangerous and unknown future.

The Banality of Evil blends satire, physical theatre and cabaret. Drawing on archival research and testimony to reveal forgotten histories of women caught between exile, imprisonment and survival, its centre is a pivotal moment in the life of 33-year-old Hannah Arendt that would later inform her writing on power and human rights.

In this evening event, Pascal will reflect on creating a major theatre work from extensive archival research in the Wiener Library’s collections and the Departmental Archives in Pau, as well as from interviews with the children and grandchildren of Eva Daube. Pascal will highlight the importance of bringing such history to the stage and several contemporary German artistic collaborators that contributed to the production. A reading from the play’s Trial Scene, with professional actors, will follow.

About the Speaker

Julia Pascal is a playwright and theatre director, having received her PhD from the University of York in 2016. Most of her work focuses on Jewish culture and history. Theresa explored how Viennese Jewish musician Theresia Steiner was betrayed by the Guernsey government during the Occupation. It was a successful stage play, touring over several decades and was broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Her adaptation of Anski’s Dybbuk was seen in the UK, France, Germany and the USA. St Joan was produced in London, Paris, Lille and at the Edinburgh Festival. It was also workshopped at the Director’s Lab at New York’s Lincoln Centre. The Tricycle Theatre commissioned her Crossing Jerusalem which was given a second production at the Park Theatre. The script was translated into German and seen at the Karlsruhe Staatstheater. Woman in the Moon at the Arcola Theatre explored Wernher von Braun’s role as a Nazi scientist before he became a major agent in the 1969 US Moon landing. Nineveh at the Riverside revealed PTSD in former soldiers. At the Finborough Theatre 12:37 examined Zionism from the point of view of two Irish Jewish brothers and featured the bombing of the King David Hotel.

Her plays are published by Methuen Drama. Last year she was a Miller Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Languages Cultures and Societies where she researched the archive of theatre critic and agent Berthold Auerbach. Currently she is leading a cohort of new Jewish Playwrights for the Jewish Literary Foundation and has been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Literary Society.

Description supplied by the event organiser.