The Musicians

Southeast US Premiere

This poignant and inspiring drama tells the story of a Polish musician and petty crook who enters into a secret arrangement with a talented Jewish violinist in order to survive the German occupation. Roman Cudakowski, Cudak to his friends, plays in a small band that performs at weddings and city events. But during the occupation, the band is hardly ever hired to perform. Desperate to earn some money, he agrees to perform for the Germans, who demand his band hire a fiddler as well. Cudak decides to sneak a talented musician, Szymon Akerman, out of the Jewish ghetto, even though they were musical rivals before the war. In the new reality surrounding them, they unexpectedly find they need each other. And the better the men get to know each other, the more the differences that once divided them fade away, so that in the end, their mutual will to survive takes precedence above all.