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 Written by and starring Naava Piatka
In the midst of war-torn Europe, a young teenage girl named Chayela Rosenthal unexpectedly became a star. With her courageous spirit and irrepressible humor, she transported audiences away from the daily terror of Nazi occupation through her thrilling singing and performances in the Vilna Ghetto Theatre in Lithuania.
Naava Piatka, her daughter, growing up in a different time, on a different continent, discovers the truth about her family’s transcendent past only after her mother’s untimely death. She hears for the first time her lyricist uncle’s famous songs composed especially for her mother to sing.
Playing both her mother and herself, Piatka recreates her mother’s remarkable life and times through stirring narrative, distinctive Yiddish humor, and evocative songs to tell this uniquely heartwarming and uplifting true story of the triumph of laughter and music over the Holocaust.
A stirring tribute, “Better Don’t Talk” brings to life Naava’s vivacious mother’s inspiring story in a theatrical and musical memoir that breaks the silence and superstitions of the past.
“Piatka is the first writer to recognize that Jews did not lose their joy in the most ghastly circumstances.” - Robert Brustein, Artistic Director, American Repertory Theatre
Recommended for ages 11 and older
October 22 - 29, 2006
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