I Never Saw Another Butterfly

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The reviewer is always aware of stepping on a few dreams. To crush those of actors still at secondary school is another matter, however, especially when their subject matter is the inhumane obliteration of the lives and dream of Jewish children during the Holocaust. You see my predicament.

The problem is that these kids are dealing with material they have little hope of succeeding with – despite their valiant efforts – which do not fail to induce an emotional reaction.

In the Theresienstadt, ghetto the adolescent protagonist is told "You are no longer a child." This play addresses the childhood these children were denied and how they sought to retain their awareness of beauty in a world that was so irreparably ugly. To ask people who have not yet been forced to leave their adolescence to perform this play with professional finesse is therefore almost unfair. A play relevant to their own experience might have been a more suitable choice: one of the more successful moments sees two teenagers fall in love - something we all know a little more about, thankfully.

What is inspiring is that the Fringe can bring young talent from overseas to pay homage to global atrocities. Hanging children’s art from the barbed wire around the ghetto (literally and metaphorically), there is an undeniable beauty to this production.