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Hannah Senesh

Presented by Hannah Productions, LLC at Playhouse on the Park

March 12-March 22, 2009

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Based on Hannah's diary and with some of her poetry (Eli, Eli and Blessed is the Match) set to music, David Schechter's one-woman, two-character play is powerful both in theme and theatrical approach. It's 1934, and anti-semitism is growing. We first meet Hannah (Andrea Dovner), the effervescent and headstrong 13-year-old schoolgirl, and hear her secret hopes and dreams through stories of her daily life in Budapest. This playful, charming and innocent daughter of a well-known Budapest playwright also dreams of becoming a writer. Anxious for world of high ideals where "each and every one of us are needed," Hannah decides, against her mother's wishes, to become a Zionist. Leaving her family behind to work the land in Palestine, she finds life on a kibbutz not quite as fulfilling as she had hoped, constantly questioning and searching for life's higher purpose. When the British begin enlisting volunteers for the parachute corps, Hannah joins. After rigorous training, she discovers her ultimate purpose upon hearing reports of heightened Jewish persecution and the Nazis' plans for wholesale extermination. She takes her personal mission with great determination: return to Hungary to warn her "people" of the imminent dangers that await them. Parachuting behind enemy lines, she is quickly captured, imprisoned and brutally tortured, meeting her untimely and heroic death by firing squad in the prison courtyard. Hannah Senesh was 23. This compelling 90-minute play, with songs in Hebrew, German and English, and framed with Hannah's mother's commandingly serene presence, is a triumph of the human spirit. In a life filled with hate and terror, Hannah is warm and passionate. Her heroic journey moves us with both laughter and tears and, though we are saddened by her fate, Hannah's story of courage and accomplishment is inspiring and uplifting. Helpful Information: Tickets can be purchased through Phoenix Theatre Box Office (602) 254-2151 and Walk-up tickets purchased on show nights at the Playhouse on the Park Theatre, 1850 N. Central Ave., will be on a cash-only basis.