I haven’t been inside a Broadway theatre
Since they lifted the vaccine mandate almost a year ago
It felt strange being in a crowded room
Full of unmasked people
(I wore my mask)

But the play
Oh the play
So beautifully realized
So devastating in its poetry
So heart wrenching in its reality

The story of families
The stories of family
A red photo album
Containing the images and
Names of people
Remembered and forgotten

Vienna in 1900
The constant interweaving of
Christianity and Judaism
Art and music and literature and science
A star of David on the Christmas tree
Hiding the matzoh

Vienna in 1924
The simple choreography of a shawl
Depicting the passage of time
Already a war has deprived a generation of their youth
Already a war has made the youth restless for joy

Vienna in 1938
Brutality
You cannot watch
You cannot look away

Vienna in 1955
Remembering
Reckoning
The haunting ghosts
The luck of where you ended up
What you escape
What you survive
How to go on after all of that

The strangeness of hearing St Patrick’s Day bagpipes from 8th Avenue
The collective silence of a thousand people holding their breath
The quiet sobs as the lights go to black

The privilege of story telling
The privilege of making art
The necessity of story telling
The necessity of art.