The term “multimedia” often means speech, video, music and movement. Diane Samuels’ theatrical refraction of the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Miriam Freedman has these, but also incorporates superflex yoga and meditation, the former thankfully not subject to audience participation but the latter an important element of the show.
An early section resembles a communal mindfulness exercise, as we close our eyes and focus on breathing in and out. Breath subsequently becomes the central metaphor – proof of survival but, in a sequence where Miriam hides in a flat in Slovakia while Nazi soldiers stamp the stairwell, respiration may be a fatal giveaway. Escaping to London, “Eva” – the less-Jewish name Miriam used in her occupied homeland – attended classes given by Irina Tweedie, a Sufi teacher (hence the yoga and meditation), who intuited the young woman’s deep trauma but never asked about it because Freedman, for many years, could not remember out loud.
