Son of a Survivor

There is a heavy box on the shoulders of Steve Greenstein. He did not pick it up; it was placed there.

During his solo play, “From Bubby to Bat Yam,” which he performs at the University of Judaism on Wednesday, Greenstein, 36, opens that box. He dusts off memories of a softball game in the Bronx, a soccer game in Israel, a grandfather he never knew, a grandmother with numbers tattooed on her wrist. The scenes represent just ounces of the weight that comes with being a second-generation Holocaust survivor.

Greenstein’s mother’s family was from Belgium. In 1941, during the Nazi occupation, Greenstein’s bubby--his grandmother--took his mother to a Catholic priest who was hiding Jewish children. For most of the years of the war, young Rachel Engelstein was known as Mary Rose DuPont, living first at the church and then with a Catholic family in the village of Virton.

Greenstein’s grandparents were taken to Auschwitz; only bubby survived. After the war ended, she made her way back to Belgium to claim her daughter and explain why she had left her behind.

The fate of such Holocaust survivors has been examined at places such as the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.--as well as in documentary films like last year’s Oscar-winning “One Survivor Remembers.” Greenstein extends their story. His 90-minute narrative, much of it told from his point of view as a child, shows how memories of the Holocaust resurfaced in his family’s daily life.

“We were all watching ‘Hogan’s Heroes’--funny Nazis!--and my mother sees this show on TV,” Greenstein said. “She hears the laugh track, the ‘Heil Hitler’s,’ the goofy smiles. . . . That TV didn’t last long.” He stopped speaking for a moment, then realized his meaning was unclear. “She smashed it,” he said. “She went berserk.”

The play isn’t without humor--not surprising since Greenstein also works as a stand-up comedian. “I’m an actor, but I got into stand-up because you could always get work as a stand-up in the ‘80s,” he said. “I think my humor comes from these experiences. Before I chose to explore these issues, I used humor to hide.”

Greenstein started to write his play in 1992, about three years after the death of his grandmother and five years after the death of his mother. It was on a cruise ship to Mexico, where he had a stand-up gig, that the memories started to come back to him, like flashes of an ephemeral dream. “I felt very much alone with these feelings,” he said. “I was sitting on the deck of this cruise ship and all these thoughts about my mother and bubby and my childhood--it all came out.”

Twenty years earlier, Greenstein had traveled to Israel for his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. “I felt a longing, something deep inside me that said go back,” he said. “It was like: ‘Go get some holy juice’ or something.” So he developed the play in Israel in a program that paired American Jewish artists with Israelis. It was somehow safer, he felt, to tell his highly personal story there first. “You can almost feel the ghosts during the play coming down and watching. I can feel the priest who saved my mother.”

He stayed in Israel until 1995, working as an actor on Israeli TV and touring his play to theaters throughout the country. He has also performed “From Bubby to Bat Yam” in London, in Antwerp, Belgium, and in June at the La Jolla Playhouse as part of the eighth annual Streisand Festival of New Jewish Plays.

Each venue gives the story a slightly different context. For example in Belgium, where relations between Jews and Catholics are still strained, it was a common ground for dialogue. In America, it has led to discussion--and sometimes debate--about how the different generations perceive their common history.

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The show is directed by Mark Travis, who has developed many one-person shows, including Chazz Palminteri’s “A Bronx Tale” and the recent “The Dangerous Lure of High Heels.” Like the best solo performances, Travis said, “From Bubby to Bat Yam” engages the audience not just as spectators, but as participants in the storytelling.

“His writing is very eloquent. It far surpasses many pieces I’ve seen. He creates a verbal imagery that can be astonishing,” Travis said. “He has a childlike sense of wonder, glee, fascination, bewilderment. . . . His attitude toward what he’s been through--or the filter he lets us see it through--is wonderfully engaging.”

Greenstein already has another play written, “Voices From the Holy . . . and Not-So-Holy Land,” which he performed at the San Diego Repertory Theater, also in June. It’s a series of monologues that encompasses perspectives from Israelis, Palestinians and American Jews, each of whose experience reflects the peace process in the Middle East.

The suggestion in his plays--that Jews need to move beyond their hatred and distrust of the world around them--is not always popular. Because of its contemporary setting--the opening scene is at a Honda dealership in Reseda in the months following the Northridge earthquake--”Voices” has an even greater potential to spark arguments. But that’s an acceptable result for Greenstein, who feels he carries on his shoulders a collection of stories that people need to hear.

“My mother is like a light in the darkness--and I’m choosing to go for the light rather than dwell in the darkness,” Greenstein said. “A lot of people choose to remain angry and bitter. That’ll kill you. You have to find a way to heal inside.”

‘A lot of people choose to remain angry and bitter. That’ll kill you. You have to find a way to heal inside.’

DETAILS

* WHAT: “From Bubby to Bat Yam.”

* WHERE: Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday.

* HOW MUCH: $12.

* CALL: (310) 476-9777, Ext. 335, or for future performances, (213) 694-0169.