The music for the production, entitled Irena, is by Poland’s Grammy-winning jazz pianist and composer Włodek Pawlik, with songs written by Mark Campbell.
At a press conference on the eve of the premiere, Pawlik said: “My music is a post-modernist collage of various styles and sounds, with elements of R&B, rock, jazz, soul, and funky… But what was most important for me was to convey the spirit of Sendler’s drama in the vocal sequences of the score.”
The English-language libretto was written by Polish-born US-based journalist Piotr Piwowarczyk and American filmmaker Mary Skinner, who previously teamed up for an American movie about Sendler, entitled In the Name of Their Mothers.
Piwowarczyk says his meetings with Sendler during the shooting of that film made a profound impact on him.
The director of the show, Brian Kite, has told the media that the idea of the production is “to seek answers to the question: how is it to be a hero, what are its dark sides, and what are the sacrifices that have to be made."
Kite, who is dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California in Los Angeles, added: "We want the show to stir up emotions in the audience and provoke reflection.”
Choreographer Dana Solimando, whose credits include several Broadway productions, has said that the work on Irena was a "great privilege" and "learning experience" for her.
“The story of Irena Sendler is about hope and perseverance," she said. "I hope it’s going to inspire the audience in the way that it inspired me."
Irena Sendler, pictured in 1944. Photo: PAP/Paul Fearn/Alamy Stock Photo
As an employee of the Social Welfare Department of the City of Warsaw during the war, Sendler had a special permit to enter the Warsaw ghetto to check for signs of typhus. Thanks to this, she was able to smuggle Jewish children out of the ghetto and find Christian families and monasteries to take care of them.
In 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, the Nazi German secret police, tortured and sentenced to death. She was eventually saved from the execution.
Sendler died on May 12, 2008, aged 98. She held the Righteous Among Nations title from the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem and honorary citizenship of Israel.
Her honours also included the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state distinction.
Sendler’s story was rediscovered in 1999 by three American high school girls, who wrote and produced a documentary play about her entitled Life in a Jar.
Further performances of Irena at the Music Theatre in Poznań are scheduled for August 28, September 3, 4, 10 and 11, October 28-30, and November 3-5.
(mk/gs)