Block 15

THE BLOCK 15 arose from the reading of the testimonies of two musicians, Anita Lasker and Simon Laks, during the second world war. It was a shock for us to notice that music, which is present everywhere in life, was able to play a role in such circumstances. Nevertheless it was really there as a second skin which protected them, a refuge, but also, sometimes the echo of the suffering of their souls. How and why was Music able to save lives? An uncontrollable urge came then to follow in their footsteps, to express what could have been the life of any musician 60 years ago. These footsteps belonged to a minority found unworthy to live by the Nazis: Jew, Gypsy, homosexual, black … This deeply shattering experience took shape when Jean Piat, a famous French theater actor, was touched in turn by these inconceivable narratives; he decided to direct two musicians who would alone tell this story .So here are Anita and Simon. Stunned , they discover , over the months, that the music might save their lives. Original, poignant, grave. “It is a one-shot show ; I add that the signed direction setting by Jean Piat contributes to purify the show of all which could sink into the pathos to preserve that tightened cord of a deeply shattering and painful human adventure carried by a plain music, and this music is constantly carried by Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel in a kind of passionate tension that they preserve playing the text, both of them being not juxtaposed , but weaved (...). "

 From National French Radio RTL, Alain Duault