AustLit

'Driftwood The Musical is a theatrical adaptation of Eva de Jong-Duldig’s critically acclaimed memoir ‘Driftwood – escape and survival through art’, which tells the inspirational story of the renowned Austrian/Australian sculptor Karl Duldig and his artist/inventor wife, Slawa Horowitz-Duldig. The story takes in their romantic and artistic lives in pre-war Vienna and Slawa’s ingenious invention of the foldable umbrella. We follow the family’s narrow escape from Nazi Austria, as well as the recovery of all their Viennese art and other possessions after the war.

'Karl said, ‘A game of tennis saved my life’. They found a brief refuge in Singapore before arriving in Australia on 25 September 1940. Australia was at war: they were classified as enemy aliens and interned in an isolated camp in northern Victoria. They rebuilt their lives as artists in Melbourne, but tragically almost all their relatives died in the Holocaust.

'Spanning three continents and three generations, Driftwood is an epic story affirming the power of human creativity and familial bonds.'

Source: Production blurb.