Why We Laugh, is an adaptation of the Terezín cabaret Laugh with Us
(authors Dr. Felix Porges, Vítezslav “Pidla” Horpatzky, Pavel Weisskopf, and Pavel Stránsky), by American playwright Kira Obolensky,
performed in English with Czech supertitles. The performance will be introduced by Dr. Lisa Peschel, Harvard University, editor of Performing Captivity, Performing Escape: Cabarets and Plays from the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto.

The adaptation, Why We Laugh, combines scenes and songs from the original cabaret with new scenes that reflect upon a scholar’s attempts to imagine how that original cabaret might have been erformed.
This will be the first time that scenes and songs from Laugh with Us have returned to Terezín since its original performances in 1944.
Lisa Peschel has been researching theatrical performance in the Terezín ghetto since 1998. She and the artists look forward to a conversation with the audience after the performance.
The cabaret will be performed in the attic theater in the Magdeburg barracks at 204 Tyrsova Street, Terezín. (Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at 3 pm and 7:30 pm)

Elly Bernstein-Porges
Felix Porges - Dr. Felix Prokeš (1913-1982)
Courtesy of the Prokeš family
 
Pavel Stránský