Petr Ginz was 14 years old when he arrived at the ghetto and concentraitioncamp Theresienstadt. Together with a group of other boys, they proclaimed their own republic and published a newspaper, Vedem. At the risk of their lives, they report factual and poignant about life in Theresienstadt. In 1944, Petr Ginz, 16 years old, was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
One of the boys in the editorial team hides the newspapers and the texts are preserved for the future. The play is about the time when the boys mobilized their creativity to resistance, compassion, and attempt to understand what was happening. I wanted to be true to the violent reality of the ghetto of Theresienstadt without being illustrative. The boxes was a mix of all the many strong impressions from visiting Theresienstadt. How the ashes of the dead bodies was put in boxes before they drove them to the river to empty them, how the nazi-architecture of the ghetto was so functional and brutal, both coffins and beds and furniture brutally designed only to store bodies.
The jewish churchyards with stones on the graves instead of flowers, symbolised by small stones in the boxes to remind of the many more humans that was murdered. On the back wall, a live film of the set from above was projected, giving the play both the historical perspective and an image of the ghetto from above and the sense of always beeing watched. Scenically the boxes was used as beds, as houses and streets in the ghetto, as a graveyard and more. In the end the actors picked some of the stones, naming a few of their many murdered friends.