The Children's Republic

Hannah Moscovitch

• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Year: 2022
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780369101471
• Subtopic: Canadian Drama
• Index: Literature

Confined within the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr. Janusz Korczak struggles to protect the children at his orphanage from the horrors of the Second World War. There is not enough food or pairs of eyes to keep watch over them. Between a troublemaking thief, an abandoned girl, a malnourished boy, and a violin prodigy, Janusz has his hands full, but together they fight for beauty and hope in a world crumbling around them.

Based on the WWII advocacy work of Dr. Janusz Korczak, The Children's Republic is a reminder of the hope that can still be found in a world devoid of freedom and the necessities of life.

Act Two

Prologue.

The Performers Playing Mettye, Israel, Misha, and Sara come on stage while the house lights are up. They rub chalk on their hands and make chalk prints of their hands on the walls.

Violin music.

The Performer Playing Israel goes off stage. The Performers Playing Mettye and Misha cross out the date “1940” on the stage and write in chalk beside it:

1942.

And they cross out the number 400,000 (Jews sealed in with a brick wall and barbed wire). They change the number to:

317,000

They turn out to the audience.

They regard them in the gloom.

Transition.

Scene One.

We’re in Korczak’s office. Korczak is writing. Stefa stands in front of him and refers to a notebook. We hear Sara practising violin, off.

Korczak: (without looking up) Where to?

Stefa: The Bermans. He’s going to give us twenty kilos of bread. And blankets he said he’d be willing to donate—

Korczak: You go to the Bermans.

Stefa: No.

Korczak looks up.

He likes you.

Korczak: The last time I was over there he just stood and stared at me with his mouth hanging open, so either he doesn’t like me or it’s sclerosis of the brain.

Beat.

(to explain) Sclerosis—hardening—his brain has hardened.

Stefa: He’s in awe.

Korczak: Of what?

Stefa: Your fame.

Korczak: Fame—what fame?

Stefa: Janusz.

Korczak: What?

Stefa: Go to the Bermans. And put your—wear your arm band.

Korczak: Why? I know I’m Jewish!

Stefa: Janusz. Wear your goddamn arm band.

Korczak: Fine, fine.

Korczak rubs his eyes, pushes his writing away, and gets up and puts on his jacket and his arm band.

I saw forty-four of the children.

Stefa: And?

Korczak: No typhus. No lice. The worst thing is they’ve become fascinated by their own diseases. They’re like old people.

Beat.

I told the new one, with the fever—Henryk—that if he didn’t drink his cup of tea it would become very sad and it would go and throw itself under a streetcar. He drank the tea.

Beat.

There are three more children in the infirmary with stomach complaints. I think it’s the bread from the Supply Section, I think they mixed it with something. Sawdust? Cement? It tasted a little architectural.

Beat.

The flies in the toilet are taking over—it’s a black swarm—they’re building a whole civilization on the ceiling, with houses and streets. I wrote a note and stuck it to the back of the door: “While you’re sitting here, kill some flies.”

Korczak is standing in...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Production History
• Epigraphs
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Afterword
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author