The Escape Act  is a clever culmination of seven years of in depth research into the life of Irene Danner-Storm, a Jewish acrobat who evaded capture by the Nazis during the Holocaust, thanks to the Althoff Circus. The creator and performer of this one woman show is Stav Meishar. A grandchild of Holocaust survivors herself, she tells Irene’s story using a mixture of theatre, puppetry and circus, drawing on her own history to help us see the wider context.

Stav Meishar as Irene, interacting with her elephant puppet. Photo credit: Gaia Putrino We are given insight into the tragic fragmentation that is left behind after generations of a family are stolen. Meishar tells us of her quest to know more about her own history, sending off ‘a glob of spit’ to find answers about her heritage. Given this and the fact that she is a circus performer hers...