Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day marks its tenth anniversary with a very special production of The Last Train to Tomorrow in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre early in the New Year (performances on Monday, January 27 and Tuesday, January 28).
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil here at Group Arts, editor of First Classics Newspapers.
00:05Lovely this afternoon to speak to Jill Hoskins. Now Jill, you are producing a really important
00:11production in Chichester's Minerva Theatre early in January, January the 27th and the 28th,
00:18and it's all through Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day organisation, and the piece is The
00:24Train to Tomorrow. Why does this matter so much do you think? And just outline what the play is
00:30about. Yes, well The Last Train to Tomorrow is an opera written by Carl Davis specifically for
00:38children and children's voices, and it's a story of the Kindertransport, the trains that managed to
00:47bring children fleeing from Nazi atrocities to England, and so I think the importance,
00:58especially at the moment, the resonance, is we want to try and encourage young people to stand
01:05up against examples of prejudice or discrimination, and so the more they can learn about history,
01:15what happened in the past, we're hoping that then as they grow older, the more they will realise
01:22that in order to prevent such atrocities happening again, they really need to be able to stand up
01:28and say this isn't right, you know, we can't. And it's a major production, isn't it, insofar as
01:33you've got a pretty large cast, drawn from Bishop Loughborough and from the Probendal,
01:38and the age range is, remind me, what sort of age are we talking about? The age range is from
01:43about eight to about 14, and so they've been rehearsing, they've been rehearsing since October,
01:52and we've got a full choir, plus soloists and narrators, so, but they really are, they really
02:01have become hooked on the music and the sound, and they're doing a fantastic job at the moment.
02:07And of course we're talking about absolutely atrocious, appalling things, but the point is
02:12you are depicting the lucky ones, aren't you? So this is a story of hope, isn't it?
02:17Indeed it is, it is. And again, I mean, you know, Carl Davies's music and his lyrics,
02:23and particularly towards the end when the children are singing about their new life,
02:29you know, and the future. So, yes, it's a terrible story, but those children that
02:37managed to escape did go on to, you know, to live another life, thankfully.
02:44What a superb thing to be doing, Gill, and this is the last train to tomorrow in
02:49Chichester's Minerva Theatre on January the 27th and January the 28th.
02:55Lovely to speak to you, thank you.
02:57Thank you very much, Phil, thank you.