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CAFE SCHEHERAZADE
$15.00
Martin, a journalist, has fallen under the spell of the Café Scheherazade and its Jewish refugee clientele and is writing a book about them, haunting the back room where an inner circle congregates.
Martin is anxious to finish the work, but the others do not fully trust him—the outsider—and he senses that there is a great deal more behind their light-hearted quarrelling that he can’t get at.
The characters tell fragments of their stories, each overlapping the other. The musicians weave in and out of the tapestry. The timelines of their lives begin pre-war and wind their way through the arctic, the gulags, the escapes, and the epic journeys that led them to this café on the other side of the world.
Martin’s book is finally published, but under the celebration is shot through with doubt: Who will listen? Did they tell the truth? Do their stories matter? Is death their end?
- drama
- 90
- 6 total
- 1 female identifying, 5 male identifying
- culturally and linguistically diverse
- 18+
- young adult, adult
- Australian Script Centre
- MONOLOGUES
- GALLERY
- LINKS & DOWNLOADS
- PRODUCTION HISTORY
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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.
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