Rose

by Martin Sherman

I'm eighty years old. I find that unforgivable and suddenly it's a millennium and I stink of the past century, but what can I do? Rose is a survivor. Her remarkable life began in a tiny Russian village, took her to Warsaw's ghettos and a ship called The Exodus, and finally to the boardwalks of Atlantic City, the Arizona canyons and salsa-flavoured nights in Miami beach. The play is both a sharply drawn portrait of a feisty Jewish woman and a moving reminder of some of the events that shaped the century. Rose, written by the celebrated author of Bent, premiered in May 1999 at the Royal National Theatre London.

Genres: Plays

40 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 1999

Reviews

[Regine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passing through New York in 1999, I was lucky to see Olympia Dukakis’s bravura solo performance. Reading the play brings back the laughter and the tears.

As Rose sits shivah for the dead, she tells stories from her life. Born in a shtetl in Ukraine, she survives the Holocaust, settling in Atlantic City, then Miami Beach. She has children and grandchildren in the U.S., Europe, and Israel who have not known pogroms and concentration camps. She has created a successful life. Her son tells her, “Your shadows will choke us to death.” But she does not forget. And -more important- she does not confine her compassion to people like herself.

Moving. And always relevant.

[Roger Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

solo performance by Olympia Dukakis...playwright Martin Sherman, also wrote the Tony nominated play Bent