About
Newpoint Players Adaptation of Ghetto by Joseph Sobol
The true story of the flourishing of a theatre in a wartime Jewish Ghetto. Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play.
Set in the Jewish ghetto of Vilna, Lithuania, in 1942, and based on diaries written during the darkest days of the holocaust, Ghetto tells of the unlikely flourishing of a theatre at the very time the Nazis began their policy of mass extermination.
For the Festival Season 2025, Newpoint Players present Sean Treanor’s adaptation of Joshua Sobol’s 1984 play “Ghetto”.
In his play, Sobol dramatises the recorded experiences of the Jews of the Vilnius Ghetto, some of whose memories inspired the work. Names of characters, songs performed and events portrayed are historically correct. In the years from 1941 to 1944, four fifths of the inhabitants of the Ghetto lost their lives, many executed at the nearby Ponar camp, others executed as punishment and others died resisting their treatment. German officers, such as Kittel, who directed the life of the Ghetto, showed unmitigated cruelty. Some Jewish leaders tried to appease and as far as possible manipulate their oppressors in an attempt to maximise the numbers who might survive. Organising workshops to mend uniforms, recording the details of endangered libraries, playing music, acting in plays, all counted as a means of getting the work permits which could mean survival until the arrival of the Russian liberators. For some prominent Jews, such as Gens, the head of the Jewish Police, there was a dilemma as to how far collaboration should go. For others, such as the librarian Kruk or for the partisans any form of collaboration with the Nazis was unacceptable.
Please note: This play contains themes of an adult nature
Season ticket for all 9 productions £60.00 and Special 4 Productions Ticket £30.00 available to purchase from the Box Office on 028 6632 5440.