Yossel

Male | 60+ | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 18

EXTRACT: I got a special suitcase made. To hide the diamonds and a bit of foreign currency.I packed it with vodka and Cognac and goose fat and I paid a fortune for a train ticket. And more - for the guards to ignore my bag. Outside on the platform I could see prisoners chained to the railings. Children. Staring. All Russian. All hungry. Ah, the smell of that train journey. Cabbage soup with sour cream. Black bread and herring. Sugar in the tea. The whole world was burning and I travelled first class to Vladivovstok!

Zalman

Male | 60+ | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 28

EXTRACT: Oh, they want you here. They just don't know it yet. I've lived here for fifty years but I have no sense of belonging. There's a certain freedom in losing everything. I don't care anymore for anthems or nations or the big things. I value this cup of coffee, its warmth, its smell, my walks by the sea with a friend, being here at a table in the Cafe Scheherazade, What more is there?

FORTYFIVEDOWNSTAIRS

WWW.FORTYFIVEDOWNSTAIRS.COM

The production page for the 2011 return season of Cafe Scheherezade, directed by Bagryana Popov at fourtyfivedownstiars.

REVIEW: CAFé SCHEHERAZADE, FORTYFIVEDOWNSTAIRS

CRIKEY.COM.AU, MARCH 2011

"This is a joy. It is a vast-hearted, gleeful riot of story, music, dance, wonderment and cake. It is a cosy transport from soulless metropolis to vibrant cosmopolis."

CAFE SCHEHERAZADE (THE NOVEL) BY ARNOLD ZABLE

PENGUIN BOOKS AUSTRALIA

"At once fable and history, Cafe Scheherazade takes the reader on a journey which ranges from Kobe to Paris, from Vilna to Melbourne. It remains faithful to the experiences of Jewish survivors, whose lives reflect the courage of refugees everywhere, and confirms Arnold Zable's status as a master storyteller."

SCHEHERAZADE TAKES CENTRE STAGE

DANNY GOCS, THE AUSTRALIAN JEWISH NEWS, MARCH 2011

"The poignant stories of these European migrants are brought to life through recollection, reminiscence and music in this production directed by Bagryana Popov and starring Jacob Allan, Richard Bligh, Marta Kaczmarek, Bruce Kerr and George Werther."

INTERVIEW: LEONARD AND THERESE RADIC

ABC MELBOURNE

The Conversation Hour - (From 26:40) Host Jon Faine talks with playwright and critic Leonard Radic and his wife Therese, playwright and musicologist. Married for 54 years, for the first time this year they had plays they'd written being performed at the same time. Her play, Cafe Scheherezade, returned to 45 Downstairs from 20 August 2011.