Review Roundup: AS LONG AS WE ARE BREATHING at Arcola Theatre

A real-life story about trauma, survival and ultimately healing, As Long As We Are Breathing combines physical theatre and music with audio and video to depict the extraordinary journey of Miriam Freedman who, after surviving the Holocaust, managed to find her way to forgiveness. 

Born in Bratislava (then Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia), Miriam spent most of her childhood during the Second World War in hiding with her mother, sister, aunts and cousin. Through amazing good fortune and with courageous help they evaded Nazi capture, but her father, brother and another sister did not survive. Weaving together her early years and adulthood, two actresses play younger and older Miriam on her healing path as she discovers yoga, meditation and art therapy which enable her to break through denial to face and process the depths of her loss and grief. 

Inspired by interviews with Miriam and drawing on her memoir Love Is Always the Answer, As Long As We Are Breathing is written by award-winning writer Diane Samuels (Kindertransport). Directed by Ben Caplan, the show was developed at JW3 last year and will make its world premiere at Arcola Theatre. Two actresses play older Miriam and Eva, her younger self, accompanied by a live musician. Miriam Freedman is now ninety and based in North London where she continues to run meditation sessions each month. See what the critics are saying...

Gary Naylor, BroadwayWorld: It is not for me to appropriate any element of the unique trauma of The Holocaust and apply it as a metaphor - that is for Miriam and those carrying its burden today - but it is for me, and people like me, to listen, to learn and to act on what we see now. The testimony of As Long As We Are Breathing demands that we must.   

Mark Lawson, The Guardian: A cast of three brings multitudinous talent to the multiplicity of forms. Caroline Gruber’s older Miriam captures the improbable humour and forgiveness that Freedman – who took a reluctant curtain call with the actors on press night – brings to her reflections. Newcomer Zoe Goriely, between eye-watering yoga stretches, shows the accelerating terror of young Eva and the reasons for her long postwar silence. Matthew James Hinchliffe provides a live backing track with instruments including clarinet (effects ranging from breathing to sirens) and, with a bunch of keys, the ominous percussion of a Slovakian janitor. Samuels’ Kindertransport (1993) is one of the strongest theatrical pieces of Holocaust education and remembrance and, in the week of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and at a time of alarmingly rising antisemitism, she has created a worthy companion piece.

Chelsea, Theatre and Tonic: The play ends with a clip of Miriam making porridge and you can’t help but smile. There is no doubt that Miriam Freedman has lived an extraordinary life and her story is one that should be told, and that Diane Samuels took a lot of care in getting her story right, but some things just didn’t land. It’s worth a watch, but 90 minutes didn’t feel enough to get to the crux of this seemingly beautiful person in one show.

Dean Wood, Everything Theatre: The scale of war is immense, and perhaps inconceivable to those of us blessed not to live through it. As Long As We Are Breathing adds to the voices of individuals which are crucial for us to know and remember. This is intimate storytelling led by emotive performances and creative use of embedded music. I am grateful for the gift of Freedman’s story, and the way it was shared with us today. And, finally, I am left with the important final message of As Long As We Are Breathing; that being one of opening your heart to others, and of forgiveness.