Over the holidays, I visited with three elders who live within two blocks of each other. They probably never met and maybe never will, for two of them are frail, elderly and housebound, and the third, also quite on in years, is recuperating from surgery. But I’m imagining that there was a time 70 years ago when their paths may very well have crossed. In spirit they surely did.
One of them is a Jewish holocaust survivor who had lost most all of her large family at the hands of the Nazis. She rarely speaks about her dark memories of the concentration camp, the cold, the starvation, the ovens. Another is a former soldier who arrived on European shores in 1944 to fight the Germans. He laughingly says that when he told his commander he could speak French, he was rewarded with a grizzly assignment indeed. And, the third is a former World War II undercover agent, a Christian woman who went all out to help rid the world of the Nazi scourge.
This vision came to me. Next summer, I may have the time to write the play.
- Scene I:
Three nonagenarians shuffling along a Broadway street scene, maybe with walkers or canes to underscore their venerable age. They are basically ignored by the crowds, as is typical in 2010, and they hardly but vaguely notice each other. - Scene II:
We meet Hannah, a young Jewish woman with a weird scar on her face, living in a Concentration Camp. She is scratching at crumbs of bread on the ground, a survivor although her monologue tells us she has lost everyone. - Scene III:
A young undercover agent, Mareike, a beautiful redhead with a large cross necklace, through some sort of sensational scheme, finds out the location of a secret camp and goes on a reconnaisance mission in her Mercedes. She then shows a brigade of Americans where to go. One brave young soldier, Dan, with one white eyebrow was the first into Hannah’s camp. - Scene IV:
Hannah, on the brink of being taken by her captors for some awful punishment, is liberated by Dan’s brigade…and Dan hands her over to Mareike, who helps her onto a truck. Dan and Mareike wave goodbye to Hannah forever. Then, they wave goodbye to one another, also forever. Or so they think. - Scene V:
We are back on Broadway, and sitting on three different benches, we see a 90 year old man with one white eyebrow. We see a redhead 90 year old with a large cross around her neck. And, we see a 90 year old woman with Hannah’s scar trying to pull her sleeve down over the number imprinted on her arm. Nobody notices them, as younger people rush laughingly by. Curtain closes.
What do you think?
Irene Zola
Tags: aging in place, eldercare, eldercare village, elderly, playwrite, seniors, theatre, Volunteers
