''Under the Skin'' (מתחת לעור - Mitakhat La'Or) is a 2013 play by Israeli playwright Yonatan Calderon. The play tells the historical story of the love affair between the lesbian Nazi officer

Anneliese Kohlmann Anneliese Kohlmann (1 March 1921 – 17 September 1977) was a German SS camp guard within the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, notably, at the Neuengamme concentration camp established by the SS in Hamburg, Germany; and at Ber ...

and one of her female Jewish prisoners in

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

. The play is based on Kohlmann's Belsen trial transcript, and also on

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

' testimonies, including the testimony of

Ruth Bondy Ruth Bondy (19 June 1923 – 14 November 2017) was a Czech-Israeli journalist and translator. Bondy was a Holocaust survivor who wrote for the Israeli newspaper Davar and translated books written in Czech to Hebrew. She was awarded the Sokolov A ...

, a well-known Israeli writer, translator and journalist. ''Under the Skin'' premièred at the LGBT center in Tel Aviv in 2014 and at the

Old Red Lion Theatre The Old Red Lion is a pub and fringe theatre, at Angel, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre was founded in 1979 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. The pub was Grade II listed in 1994 by Historic England. History Construction The p ...

in London in 2018.

Plot

The play takes place both in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

during the 1991's

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

and in 1944 Nazi Germany. Charlotte Brod is an elderly

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

who lives in her Tel Aviv apartment. One evening during the Gulf War, Kirsten Eberhardt, a young German journalist, knocks on her door and questions her about a secret love affair that took place in

between the Jewish prisoner and her Nazi commander, Ilse Kohlmann (Based on

). The play consists of flashbacks to the concentration camp in which the actress who plays the Holocaust survivor plays the Nazi commander woman, and the actress who plays the young German journalist plays Charlotte, now a young Jewish prisoner.

Critical reception

The London production received favorable reviews. Jeff Prestridge called it a "Short, sharp and brave theatre". Lara Domke found it "a deeply moving and touching retelling whose importance is unquestionable". Judi Herman thought that "playwright Yonatan Calderon has wrought a short play of shocking beauty". Keith Mckenna found that "the play encourages understanding and compassion and avoids melodrama". Suzanne Frost thought that the play "digs deep into the human psyche to explore what war and what power does to people and what love can do". Kezia Niman found it a lyrical and thought-provoking play, and Ian Foster called it a Bold fringe work and wrote that "Calderon makes a powerful case for really interrogating what we mean by morality, how we look at the past and how we let it shape us now."

References

External links

* * * * {{YouTube , id=wrJAnq4KGgg , title=Show trailer of Israeli production Lesbian plays Israeli plays Plays about Nazi Germany Plays about the Holocaust Plays about World War II Plays based on real people 2013 plays 2013 in LGBT history Plays set in Germany