MARBLEHEAD — Imagine yourself growing up in a household where the matriarch has closed herself off and has left a tremendous bare spot in the family tree.
“From Silence,” at Marblehead Little Theater on School Street through this weekend, tells of the Kline family, whose matriarch, Esther Gold, survived being incarcerated in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, where she suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis. But there, she also learned valuable lessons of living for the moment and having laser focus on it.
That ability to compartmentalize allowed her the illusion — in her later years — of feeling she was maintaining her sanity by stuffing the horrors of Ravensbruck deep into the recesses of her psyche and living for the present.
Then Esther’s granddaughter, Elaina, is trapped inside her temple after a reported shooting incident. The episode brings images of her past back to her so vividly she can no longer suppress them.
Esther lives in the parallel universe of the present and her horrific past. Playwright Anne Marilyn Lucas and director John Fogle present this dichotomy by giving us three Esthers: the present-day one, the child who was imprisoned, and an inner-voice Esther who articulates the thoughts and feelings she cannot, or will not, express (and also doubles as a mother from a more-recent past as well). It may be confusing for a short while, but eventually you get it, and grow to appreciate how, and why, it was necessary to portray Esther this way.
“From Silence” is not a linear story. It flashes back freely from concentration camp scenes to past interaction among Esther’s daughter and granddaughter, and their friends. And one of its central themes is that the Holocaust’s trauma isn’t just limited to those who endured it and survived. It matriculates down through generations and the scars multiply, as co-producer Judy Wayne can attest. Her mother was a Holocaust survivor.
Both Esther’s daughter, Deborah, and Elaina are visibly searching for the missing pieces of their heritage. And it frustrates both that Esther won’t talk of her ordeal.
Slowly, though, Esther realizes her silence is deadly and vows to speak out. Her granddaughter’s safe return (a scene that’ll bring tears to your eyes) after the temple siege reinforces her decision.
The staging, including the concentration camp scenes and the juxtaposition of the three Esthers, is superb, as is the acting. Sharon Mason (current-day Esther), Tina Barry (child) and Gail Argentine (inner voice) painted haunting pictures of the various stages of Esther’s life. Alex Alexander, as Deborah, mastered a tough role as one who suffers from the heartache of silence yet tries to be a loving mother. And Rebecca Greene, as Elaina, has the right mixture of youthful exuberance and innocence tinged with sadness over her grandmother’s ordeal.
Also first-rate is Nora Falk as Erika Buchmann, the German expatriate who dared to stand up to Hitler and ended up incarcerated in Ravensbruck as well. It was she who taught Esther about survival.
We all know about the Holocaust. But this is a play that gives you a closer look — and it’s not always a comfortable look. But it’s necessary. Also necessary are the sound bites throughout that hark back to terrorist attacks and shootings as recent as the 2015 Paris terror attacks. As the saying goes, “those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
“From Silence” is at the MLT through Sunday. Friday and Saturday, curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Sunday shows are at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The show runs 90 minutes without an intermission.
