SOVIET ZION – Concept Album Cast
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Soviet Zion is a concept album of a new full-length musical drama that explores the intertwining lives of pioneers who each move to Siberia, participating in the real-life movement to establish the first Jewish homeland of the modern era – a Yiddish-speaking, socialist utopia. Challenged by the unexpected reality they must face; great sacrifice must be made to achieve the freedom they seek.
Set against this grand historical backdrop the story of six intertwining lives explores questions of identity, integrity, belonging and nationhood; offering a glimpse into what happened to this alternative homeland.
This thought-provoking and powerful tale follows two contrasting families arriving as pioneers to settle the Far East of Russia just as so many others are preparing to leave behind the social experiment. The experiences of an American girl arriving from Malibu who struggles to adapt to her very different, new life contrast with those of another woman who, betrayed by her leaders and manipulated into compromising the man she loves, must carefully strategise her every move. As war rages and their dreams become a nightmare, how will they escape? And where can they call home?
Featuring a book by Giles Howe with Roberto Trippini and music by Giles Howe and Katy Lipson, Soviet Zion stars Kate Radmilovic, Kimberly Blake, Sam Young, Joseph Claus, Michaela Stern, John Ellis, Bruno Loxton, Toni Green, David Francis, Naomi Kilby, Michal Ish-Horowitz and Jeff Kuznicki.
It is a powerful piece of work and the version I was sent was the complete broadcast – this isn’t an album of tracks but a full-on, full length musical drama. There is no wondering what the synopsis is as you are swept along with the heartache, the humour and the sheer humanity of the whole three-hour piece.
Two releases are being made available: feature-length operatic radio play The Original Concept Album performed in English, and a bonus release of Yiddish language selections from the show translated by poet Gittel Schwartz, a first-language speaker who grew up in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Satmar community. They have also prepared a fully-singable Yiddish version of the show.
Nick Wakeham
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