It is 1941 and the scene is a secret meeting in the Lodz Ghetto. The audience plays the role of the general assembly of the Federal Partisans’ Organisation, the pro-active youth council that is deciding how to react to the Nazi occupation.

We meet Chaim Rumkowski, Head of the notorious Judenrat. The Judenrat is the Jewish council appointed by the Nazis to enforce German rule within the Jewish community. Rumkowski brings news that there is to be a ‘transport’ of 100 people from the ghetto to some outside place. Rumours abound that the transportation will take these 100 people to their death, but nothing is certain because the ghetto is sealed from outside contact.

Who should be sent on the train? Younger siblings or elderly grandparents? Rumkowski’s Dilemma uses the methods of ‘Forum Theatre’ as the audience to battle out through the issues with the characters onstage. Engaging and gripping, this is a fascinating theatrical journey into the centre of mid-war Poland. Auschwitz has not yet been created, but there are very real problems in Lodz.

e-mail Marcus to book Rumkowski’s Dilemma