Haywards Heath young actress re-enacts her wartime Jewish heritage

Oathall Community College pupil Luci Randall plays Anya in Something Underground Theatre Company's production of A Good Jew - picture by Daniel Stevens courtesy of Something Underground

Luci Randall, 15, who goes to Oathall Community College, has always wanted to be an actress since her first time on stage aged five.

She is now playing the part of Anya in A Good Jew performance by the Something Underground Theatre Company.

The plot is about the plight of one deported family during the Second World War and could have been written about Luci’s family. As Jewish supermarket owners in Lithuania 70 years ago, they were forced to flee their homes by Hitler’s Nazi soldiers. Some of them were killed and some came to England as refugees.

Luci’s mum Pippa said: “She has just done about the holocaust in history at school and was questioning my dad’s family about the SS. For her it has been a great experience to be able to relive it.”

She added: “The company is amazing. For a 15-year-old to do something like this; her CV is going to be great.”

A Good Jew also echoes of the current Syrian refugee crisis all over Europe. As with today’s Syrians, it touches upon the lives of a Jewish family who were artists, fully educated and cultured.

Lovers Sol and Hilda play together in the Frankfurt Sinfonietta. But Hilda’s father is an SS officer and Sol is a Jew. As his family is scattered by war and deportation, Sol’s mother gives him fatal advice: ‘Survive. At all costs’.

A Good Jew is on the Brighton Fringe at Exeter Street Hall on May 20, 21 and 27 and 28 and then tours to the All Saints Centre, Lewes on June 4 and 5. For tickets and more details go to www.somethingunderground.co.uk