Blonde Poison

Blonde Poison is about real life person Stella Goldschlag, a German Jew who in WW2 was tortured, incarcerated and hounded by the Gestapo. She was a strikingly blonde, blue-eyed Aryan looking woman, a survivor, who was offered the opportunity by the Gestapo to save herself and her parents from Auschwitz to work as a greifer, a catcher of Jews. It was a bit of a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ for Goldschlag, and the question the play poses is: ‘what would you have done?’

What she was living with was the sheer weight of guilt over the years. In this performance all the memories are flooding back, and you see it from her perspective as she relives all of it. It’s very confronting but there is a gallows humour about it.

“As an actor it’s a rare gift to play her. It’s a 90 minute one woman show, but I don’t just stand there and deliver a boring monologue. It’s a woman reliving her life, looking for some kind of redemption. It’s hypnotic and compelling. I’m [playing] characters, I’m imagining things, I’m myself as a young girl, I take people into that life from the age of 18 to 70,” explained well-known actor Belinda Giblin (Sons and Daughters), who plays Stella.

“It’s not a holocaust play, it’s naturalistic [and] very authentic. The audience will feel they’re in my living room watching. You are drawn into that intimacy, it’s highly emotional, you go on a trip with her.”

Giblin elaborated: “It’s an edgy piece, it’s graphic, you will come out of the play discussing it, debating the morality. There’s a gamut of emotions, it’s thought provoking and that’s the strength of a good play.” (MS)

Until August 15 (Tues-Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm). Old Fitzroy Theatre, Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo. $40. Tickets & info: oldfitztheatre.com/tickets-blonde-poison