The music theatre production Madre Salonico, written by Leon A. Nar and directed by Victor Arditti, is neither a theatre performance nor a concert, but instead a gesture of memory. Performances run 4-11 April.
Who still speaks the” Ladino”, the mother tongue of the Thessaloniki Jews? Who still sings Sephardic songs?
The stage can become the last refuge of a vanished culture, the Sephardic culture of Thessaloniki and the whole Mediterranean basin with its songs, languages, and customs – the memory of a difficult yet bygone and joyful symbiosis of religions and cultures before the Catastrophe.
The never-ending condition of being a refugee, the refusal to rest assured in oblivion, and love. In this piece, the past and the present coexist, highlighting worries about an emotional disconnection that could impact future generations, alongside with the ultimate need to cope with the memory of those who are no longer present.
