As Long As We Are Breathing review: ‘poignant but not enough punch’

Here the apartment block’s brave caretaker, later honoured as a Righteous Gentile, we learn, excavates a space in the basement where Miriam and some of her family hide when the place is being searched by German soldiers.

The legacy of being packed into a suitcase for long periods gave Miriam a yearning to run but also the chronic back pain that in later life compelled her to try a little-known exercise regime called yoga after which she become a follower of the London-based guru Irina Tweedie.

The reassuring message of Samuels’ play, which was first seen at JW3, is that it is possible to replace trauma with inner peace. But this message is prioritised over the drama of Miriam’s story

We are told, rather than shown, how it must have felt to have been packed into a suitcase. There is little sense of claustrophobia, or of limbs being folded for so long that running becomes a compulsion

We are told, rather than shown, how it must have felt to have been packed into a suitcase. There is little sense of claustrophobia, or of limbs being folded for so long that running becomes a compulsion. The tension generated when Miriam declares “I want to live” while in danger of being discovered is palpable, though all too fleeting.

Arcola

★★★