Studio I: Dr Korczak's Example

David Greig's three-hander about Dr Janusz Korczak, founder of the Jewish Orphanage and pacifist hero of the Warsaw Ghetto, takes an admirably clear and gentle look at the Holocaust through the very different eyes of two orphans, 16-year-old street urchin Adzio and Stephanie, the doctor's willing little helper. Greig's play was initially written for TAG, Scotland's Youth Theatre. As a piece of theatre aimed at older children teenagers it is unerringly tactful and imaginative. But as a piece of studio theatre presented to an overwhelmingly adult audience at an 8pm evening showing, it is less complete. There is an innocence to this studio-sized piece which is as limiting as it is beguiling and it shows through in the inquiring simplicity of the three performances. As Korczak, Philip Rham conveys the love and idealism of the doctor who ultimately chose to accompany his charges on the fateful trains instead of trying to save himself. Amaka Okafor as Stephanie gives a sympathetic account of a girl who wakes from innocence to experience in the darkest of surroundings. And Craig Vye as Adzio, the troubled teen who wants to fight back, is hauntingly vulnerable and pugnacious.