In Who Do We Think We Are? an international cast tells true stories against a backdrop of two world wars and their aftermath. This is a beautifully crafted evening of unusual warmth and interest, stitched into a globe-galloping script by Sonja Linden, ably directed by Sue Lefton.
Imola Gáspár, a compelling Transylvania-born actor, recalls being ordered to make a propaganda speech for Ceausescu on TV and refusing at her own risk. The engaging John Moraitis, born in New York of Greek parentage, remembers acting Lear in Vietnam, having refused to fight in the war in his youth. Togo Igawa, who has quiet authority, lets us know how he survived the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. A Polish actor-dancer, the miraculously supple Ruth Posner, movingly recalls finding out, in London’s Wiener library, that her parents died in Treblinka. She describes an embrace by librarians, neither of them Jewish: “I feel four hands reaching out to me; they are cradling me in their arms like I was a child again, two lovely young German women; so maybe, just maybe, there is some hope?”
Memories are picked up like dropped stitches, sewn into a single cloth. Collectivity counts. The piece was created by Visible, a company of older actors of defiant talent who offer something far livelier than mere survival.
• Who Do We Think We Are? is at Southwark Playhouse, London until 15 November
• Kate Kellaway reviews The Witch of Edmonton at the Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon
