Nick Cassenbaum
For all your theatrical needs
Credit, Helen Murray
Schlep with Nick with the Royal Court
As part of the Royal Court Tottenham Festival I was asked to create a walk using the stories of the Jewish Community in Stamford Hill. The walk took place in MarkfIeld Park in South Tottenham in July 2016.
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Writer and performer Nick Cassenbaum has spent the last few months gathering stories from Stamford Hill and South Tottenham’s Jewish communities.
Story of conversations in cafes, kitchens and old people’s homes. Stories of unseen emails, arguments and answerphone messages. Stories of home, dead ends and Yiddish.
From these he has pieced together a snapshot of life in the area over the last 60 years. A piece of storytelling about storytelling, told on the move. With live Klezmer music.
Jewish Chronicle **** Jon Nathan
Cassenbaum, topped by a flat cap, bottomed with yellow-laced DMs and with a chunky Chai nestling in his chest hair, leads his flock like a hamishe pied piper.
But what makes the event magical is the way unpredictable park life co-exits with the storytelling. A passing chasidic couple stopped to listen when they overheard the word "synagogue"' And earlier Cassenbaum regaled not his audience with his story of anti-fascist protest, but the two men sitting on a bench barbecuing their lunch. Cyclists paused and the solitary Chinese lady reading her Cantonese newspaper in a bandstand found herself in the company of an attentive congregation. Everyone was offered a pickled cucumber. "Good?"asked the Chinese lady. "Yes," I said "Good."
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