London: Catholic actors summer gathering

Jonathan Coote and Martha Van Der Bly with Michael Slater

Members of the Catholic Association for Performing Arts, (formerly the Catholic Stage Guild), met for their annual summer gathering in Covent Garden on Wednesday evening. Mass at Corpus Christi's in Maiden Lane, was celebrated by Fr Alan Robinson, with soloist Breda McKinney accompanied by David Hoyland.

Afterwards, there was a reception at the Club for Acts and Actors. Michael Slater and Dutch actress Martha Van Der Bly read two scenes from the play 'And Then They Came for Me - Remembering the World of Ann Frank and Eva Schloss', and then Martha gave a talk about about her recent tour of South Africa, with the play.

Produced by Nic Careem for the Blue Sky Network, 'And Then They Came For Me' tells the story of Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and Ann Frank’s stepsister, who had very similiar childhoods. Martha described how Eva, now an energetic 84 year-old, accompanied the tour and took part in Q & As after the show. She said: "Eva told me: 'when we came back we wanted to talk but no one wanted to listen. Later when people wanted us to talk we couldn't speak." She said that after she witnessed so many other people over the world seeking refuge, especially the Vietnamese boat refugees, that she felt she had to speak out, so that nobody would ever live through what she had to gone through in Auschwitz. Eva has also recently published a book, called 'After Auschwitz', about her experiences.

Performing the play in front of multi-racial audiences in South Africa felt particularly poignant, Martha said, because of the themes it deals with. Just a few years earlier, it would not have been possible. Nelson Mandela himself read the Ann Frank's diary when he was in prison. He said the fact that a 13 year-old in such circumstances could write so positively and with such courage, helped him to cope.

The play was performed in a number of venues in Cape Town, in Port Elisabeth and in the Apartheid Museum and in the Woman’s Gaol on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. "We had hoped to peform it on Robbin Island, Martha said, 'But it was too windy so instead we performed it on the coast."

The show has also been staged in England at the Dulwich Prep theatre with Martha performing in the lead role, winning excellent reviews.

Martha is now working on a documentary film on religious tolerance entitled: 'The Secret of Salone', (www.sos-thefilm.com), produced by Rose Rebel Productions LtD.

Another guest at the evening was actor Jonathan Coote, who has recently been performing in the West End show The Audience, with Helen Mirren. He is now developing a film project: 'Ranny Gazoo' based on a PJ Woodhouse comedy.

For more information on CAAPA see: www.caapa.org.uk/