Prior to addressing his legacy of Holocaust survivor as a playwright, Belgian scholar Adolphe Nysenholc described himself as someone who wore several "masks". These "masks" included his roles as a university professor and one of the world's authorities on both Charlie Chaplin and André Delvaux, the latter being the founder of the Belgian national cinema.
When he was three, Adolphe Nysenholc's mother gave him to a foster family just prior to her deportation to Auschwitz. Besides himself and his brother, only one member of his biological family, an uncle, survived the Holocaust. In 2001 Professor Nysenholc wrote his play War Mother as a means of embracing his legacy and that of his parents.
War Mother is a taut and moving magic realist play about an old man dealing with his ancient hidden inner child from WW II. At the twilight of his life he is visited by the ghosts of his gentile foster parents, who lived to be elderly, and his Jewish mother, who died young in a concentration camp. Who is the real mother? Who will the old "son" ultimately follow in the afterlife?
Our University of Arkansas premiere of War Mother (translation in English by William Snow) will be performed as readers theater at 7:00 pm in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main. Professor Nysenholc will participate in a question and answer session after the performance, and a reception will follow. The performance is free and open to the public.
There will be a discussion of War Mother with Professor Nysenholc on Monday, September 19th at Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas, 699 N. Sang Avenue, Fayetteville at 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome.
Contact: Frank Scheide (575-5961) or fscheide@uark.edu for additional information.