Raspanti has extracted a beautiful and moving one-act play based on the poetry created in a concentration camp by the Jewish children of Prague. Over 15,000 Jewish children passed through Terezin, and only about a hundred were still alive when Terezin was liberated at the end of the war. One of the survivors, Raja, having lived through it all, teaching the children when there was nothing to teach with, helping to give them hope when there was little enough reason for hope, creating a little world of laughter, of flowers and butterflies behind the barbed wire, tells the true story of the children. It's her play and it's theirs. There were no butterflies at Terezin, of course, but for the children, butterflies became a symbol of defiance, making it possible for them to live on and play happily while waiting to be transported.
Author's Note: The operetta actually produced in Terezin was
Brunidbar based on a well-known Czech folktale. The author created a folktale with a similar theme called
Ludvik to be used in the play to avoid copyright infringement issues. The music for
Ludvik is not available, but folk songs are usually in public domain and very simply scored. Directors might use any public-domain folk song melody and write their own words that carry out the theme of the operetta.
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Angela Robbins, Cumberland County High School, Crossville, Tenn.