In this hilarious and powerful one-man show, David performs the rollercoaster story of his late father. A Libyan Jew imprisoned as a child in the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, Marcello brought lifelong wonder, madness, joy, and pain to those around him.
The show explores questions of identity, persecution, forced migration, and liberation. It questions notions of masculinity, as an old-school alpha contrasts with a millennial progressive. The stories of father and son span unimaginable conflict and vertiginous social change.
Pieces of a Man is an interactive, mixed-media show delving into shifting pasts and parallel presents, using photos, clips from Marcello’s Holocaust Survivor testimonial, anecdotes of soldiers, gangsters, and casinos… And his five most treasured objects, entrusted to David, and subsequently lost.
Little known histories are recounted – such as the Holocaust plight of Libyan Jews, and the values clash of a Sephardi-Ashkenazi marriage. Yet this piece reaches beyond Jewry, with its story of unresolved parental trauma touching diverse communities, and leaving every spectator just a little bit transformed.
"The seed commission has made me feel supported, not just as an artist but also a woman of colour whose story needs to be heard."
CPT Commissioned Artist
