Imagine This

Imagine This.

Imagine This is a stage musical.

Cast

• Leila Benn Harris - Rebecca/Tamar
• Peter Polycarpou - Daniel/Eleazar
• Sevan Stephan - Max/Jeremiah
• Sarah Ingram - Sarah/Naomi
• Cameron Leigh - Lola/Salome
• Steven Serlin - Jan/Aaron
• Michael Matus - Otto/Pompey
• Gary Milner - Otto/Rufus
• Simon Gleeson - Adam/Silva

Plot

After a glimpse of happier times in Poland before World War II, the scene shifts to 1942 in the Warsaw Ghetto. There, a company of actors is headed by actor-manager Daniel Warshowsky. Daniel's wife is taken by Nazis.

As the company rehearses a play, Adam, a resistance fighter, bursts in and is hidden by the actors. The Nazis follow and arrest Daniel's son. Being one actor short, Daniel tells Adam he will have to play his son's part. Adam tells the company about the fate awaiting those waiting board the train to Treblinka. He believes that it is necessary to resist the Nazis. Daniel, on the other hand, believes in theatre as a way to help the Ghetto inhabitants escape the horrible reality in which they live.

Daniel and the company stage a play about the siege and mass suicide of the Jews at the fortress at Masada around 70 CE by the Roman Empire. The story of the resistance in ancient times parallels the determination by the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 to resist the Nazis. Daniel plays the leader of the ancient rebellion, Eleazar, and his daughter Rebecca plays Eleazar's daughter Tamar. Tamar is loved by the Roman General Silva, played by Adam. Just before the interval, the Nazis board the stage and promise the audience two loaves of bread and a jar of jam if they board the trains to "a new life in the east" on the following morning. They ask the Jews to bring a suitcase each, containing their most precious belongings.

The Nazis offer Daniel and his company safe passage to Switzerland if they carry on with the play in order to keep the Jews calm. The company struggles to decide between collaboration with the Nazis in return for their freedom and life, and sacrifying themselves in order to warn their audience. They decide that those who support standing for the truth will get up after the scene of mass suicide in Masada. When the scene is complete, they get up one by one until all stand. When the play draws to a close, the Masada landscape is lowered to reveal graffiti written by the actors warning the Jews not to board the train. The outraged Nazis storm the stage, push the company (except Rebecca and Adam) off the stage and murder them (off stage). Adam fights Captain Blick (the Nazi commander), and Rebecca grabs Blick's pistol and shoots him. Adam and Rebecca are presumed to survive.

All the characters return in their pre-war attire to sing "Imagine This".

Musical numbers

• Prologue - Warsaw 1939-1942
• "The Last Day of Summer" — Rebecca, Daniel and Company
• Warsaw 1942
• "Imagine This" — Daniel and Company
• Jerusalem/Masada 70CE
• "Masada Prologue" — Rebels
• "Rufus's Letter to Caesar" — Rufus
• "Free (Jerusalem Sequence)" — Rebels
• "When He Looked in My Eyes" — Tamar
• Rome, Imperial Palace
• "Salome's Lament" — Salome, Slave Girls and Roman Soldiers
• "When I Looked in Her Eyes" — Silva
• "No More" — Pompey
• Masada - Several Months Later
• "Free" (Reprise) — Rebels
• "Rebels' Prayer" — Tamar, Naomi and Rebels
• "Masada" — Eleazar, Tamar and Rebels
• "Hail" — Silva, Tamar and Roman Soldiers
• "I Am the Dove" — Naomi and Tamar
• "Hail" (Reprise) — Silva
• "Far From Here, Far From Now — Silva and Tamar

Act II

• Warsaw
• "To Touch a Cloud" — Daniel and Company
• "The Last Laugh" — Daniel
• Masada
• "Don't Mind Me" — Pompey and Aaron
• "Writing on the Wall" — Rufus and Roman Soldiers
• "I Surrender" — Tamar, Silva and Eleazar
• "Far from Here, Far from Now" (Reprise) — Tamar
• "Passover Prayer" — Jeremiah and Rebels
• "The Choice" — Eleazar, Tamar, Naomi and Rebels
• Warsaw
• "To Touch a Cloud" (Reprise) — Company
• "Imagine This" (Finale) — Company