JR is proud to have helped stage a reading in Guernsey of Theresa, Julia Pascal’s play about a Jewish woman from the Channel Islands who was handed over to the Nazis by local authorities
In the 1990s, Guernsey authorities prevented a showing of Julia Pascal’s play about a Jewish woman deported from the Channel Islands to Auschwitz during World War II. This week, for the first time ever, Theresa was performed in Guernsey at St James cultural centre.
We hosted a semi-staged rehearsed reading of the play on Monday 28 April as part of our tour to the islands. The performance was followed by a Q&A with playwright/director Pascal and the cast – Fiz Marcus, Cassandra Michal Horowicz and Josef Milo Maris – chaired by JR's executive director Dr Aviva Dautch.
The momentous occasion was covered widely in the local press, including BBC Radio Guernsey, ITV and Bailiwick Express.
Theresa has previously toured the UK, France and Germany, and it even aired on BBC Radio under the title The Road to Paradise. The play is based on the true story of Viennese Jew Theresa Steiner, who was handed over to the Nazis by the British authorities on the island of Guernsey in 1942. Along with other Jewish women living on the island, Theresa was sent from Guernsey to Auschwitz, where she was gassed.
Find out more about Pascal’s research into and attempts to stage the play in her article about Theresa in the Spring 2025 issue of JR.
By Danielle Goldstein
Header image © Tim Langlois