Madre Salonico by Leon A. Nar

Who still speaks “Ladino”, the mother tongue of the Thessaloniki Jews? Who still sings Sephardic songs? The successful music theater production “Madre Salonico”, written by the distinguished author Leon A. Nar, and directed by the experienced Victor Arditti is a work presented in a language on the brink of extinction, accompanied by the songs from Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, intending to bridge the present with the past as a gesture of memory. The work uses a blend of “Ladino” (the Spanish-Hebrew language of Sephardic communities).

Its central characters are Ido, a third-generation immigrant living in New York, and Zana, his grandmother and a once-famous singer. The two of them share experiences, memories, and concerns, focusing on the historical journey of the Thessaloniki Jews, which is intertwined with the city’s collective memory.