The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (NHB Modern Plays)

By John Boyne

Bruno has a friend called Shmuel. Like Bruno, Shmuel is nine years old. Their birthdays are on the same day. But Shmuel lives on the other side of a fence, and he's always wearing striped pyjamas...
Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a heart-wrenching tale of an unlikely friendship between two innocent boys. Angus Jackson's deeply affecting adaptation was produced by The Children's Touring Partnership and Chichester Festival Theatre on a UK tour in 2015.
'Heart-breaking... A marvelous piece of theatre' - The Public Reviews
'Parents and teachers looking for a good way of introducing children to the horrors of the holocaust will find what they need in this adaptation of John Boyne's multimillion-selling novel' - The Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jun 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781780016375

John Boyne

John Boyne is the author of Crippen, The Thief of Time, Next of Kin, and the New York Times and internationally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne won two Irish Book Awards (the People’s Choice and the Children’s) for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was made into a Miramax feature film, and his novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Ireland's Sunday Business Post named him one of the forty people under forty in Ireland "likely to be the movers and shakers who will define the country's culture, politics, style and economics in 2005 and beyond." Crippen was nominated for the Sunday Independent Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award. He lives with his partner in Dublin.

Book preview

cover-image

John Boyne

THE BOY IN THE

STRIPED PYJAMAS

adapted for the stage by

Angus Jackson

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Adapter’s Note

Acknowledgements

Original Production

Characters

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

John Boyne

When I was writing my novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas during 2004 and 2005 I never expected that it would go on to have such a long and varied life. A novelist who writes with one eye on either the screen or the stage is making a terrible mistake, and naturally it didn’t occur to me at that early stage that the story would find its way on to both. The film adaptation in 2008 was a tremendous success and the writer/director, Mark Herman, did a great job in capturing Bruno’s world, his innocence and naivety, and the depth of his friendship with Shmuel.

In some ways, however, the stage is the perfect place for an adaptation. It’s a novel with very few characters and very few locations, and Angus Jackson, who adapted the book, has brought a fresh elegance to the story with his measured and thoughtful script. When I first saw it performed at the Chichester Festival Theatre in February 2015, I was particularly impressed by the use of a back screen that superimposed words throughout the action and a moving choreographed sequence where Bruno escapes the house for the first time, runs through the woods and discovers the fence and a new friend.

At times I feel like just one participant in the story of this novel. I’ve spoken in hundreds of schools around the world, discussed it at numerous literary festivals, and been privileged to meet Holocaust survivors and hear their stories first hand. I did everything I could to respect their feelings and experiences in my novel; now it is an opportunity for the theatre to do the same.

Adapter’s Note

Angus Jackson

The central challenge in adapting John Boyne’s book for the stage is that it depends on having a leading character who doesn’t know what’s going on. Not many stories work like that. For Bruno it’s a mystery story, he needs to find out about a new world, and he never gets to complete the adventure. So he asks questions, explores his environment and he explores his memory in theatrical flashbacks. He sees himself as just that, an explorer. In the first production Bruno’s journey to the fence involved the whole company beautifully choreographed, lifting and obstructing Bruno in turn, building the fence bit by bit until Bruno was left sitting opposite Shmuel. The sections of the fence came back when we needed them but not always all of them, the design was fluid, helpful to the actors but often not naturalistic.

In the first production we were lucky enough to have six extraordinary young actors playing Bruno and Shmuel, three pairs in rotation. They gave huge attention to detail, impressive energy, and were very moving. I can also imagine it played by older actors, and I always wondered if someone might produce it with life-size puppets playing the two boys.

There’s direct address by Maria, at the start and end, and banners on the back wall. If you don’t want to project those banners they could be spoken or handled in a different way. They are a response to John Boyne describing his story as a fable. It’s truthful, it’s based in fact, but it’s not factual. Our aim isn’t to seduce the audience, it’s to say ‘What if…?’ And that’s an exciting theatrical starting point.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Kathy Bourne who guided us all to the book and steered us beautifully. Ed Snape, Marilyn Eardley, Jonathan Church and Alan Finch have been the most creative producers, as have all in The Children’s Touring Partnership. Thanks also to Emily Vaughan-Barratt and Tom Powis. Joe Murphy expertly led a remarkable team of Lizzi Gee, Robert Innes Hopkins, Stephen Warbeck, Greg Clarke, Andrzej Goulding, Jon Pashley, Malcolm Rippeth, Lotte Hines and Joanne Hawes to create a perfect world. Thanks to John Boyne who was collaborative and insightful throughout. And of course to the actors.

A.J.

This adaptation of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was produced by The Children’s Touring Partnership, and first performed on 19 February 2015 at Chichester Festival Theatre, before touring the UK. The cast was as follows:

Characters

BERLINERS, including three small boys

BRUNO, a small nine-year-old

GRETEL, his older sister, fourteen

MOTHER, thirties

GRANDMOTHER, a retired singer

MARIA, the maid, twenties

FATHER

SOLDIERS

PAVEL, a waiter

LIEUTENANT KOTLER, nineteen

EVA BRAUN, a photographer’s model

PARTY GUESTS HERR LISZT, a tutor

CAMP INHABITANTS, all male

SHMUEL, a small, thin nine-year-old

Note on the Text

… indicates a speaker coming to a halt

– indicates an interruption

Reviews for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (NHB Modern Plays)

[eavans-914612 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Ah yes, let's follow a frustratingly naive nazi boy who never has to reckon with his beliefs before being killed off... You know what, let's put in just enough trauma for our Jewish character for the audience to feel bad for, but not enough to significantly impact their life... Let it never shake them from their god-like, perfect, aryan best friend *chefs kiss*

This read like a fetishized Holocaust-guilt trip. Bad. Entertaining, but bad. I feel so icky.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An innocent nine-year-old German boy travels with his family from Germany to Poland during WWII, where his father is the commandant of a concentration camp. Their new home is nearby, and he befriends one of the incarcerated children. It is ultimately a fable of good and evil, and a heart-rending tragedy.

It points to the innate ability of children to love, trust and care for each other. It shows the ability of adults to calmly engage in mass murder. Due to the way it is written, parents could use it as a starting point in communicating with their children (age 10 and up) about the Holocaust.

I listened to the audio book, brilliantly read by Michael Maloney.

[sharonmariabidwell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well-known and international bestseller, this is a book set during the Holocaust and telling the story from the point of view of an innocent boy. On the one hand, this should be a classic for generations to come and required reading; indeed, many teachers in the UK use this for teaching already. However, Bruno would not have been so unaware; as a German child of the time, he would have been part of the Hitler Youth movement, taught (brainwashed from a young age) to swear oaths to support the Fatherland. The book suffers from other faults such as the unfortunately flat character of Shmuel, the boy Bruno makes friends with — a child who more likely would have been instantly murdered at Auschwitz, the obvious setting as Bruno calls the camp Out-With. Sadly, the book falls short by showing the atrocity though one point of view, and a blinkered one at that. I can’t help feeling this would have a greater impact on today’s youth were the reader to see through the eyes of both boys revealing the true horror in the camp. Still, simply told yet disturbing, this fictional work of a factual era is appropriately unsettling, and as a teaching tool is a fine stepping off point for the young. I felt irritated that even a 9-year-old could be so ignorant of the world but realised this reflects one facet of reality — that too many, aged 9 and older, remain or even choose such ignorance. Although I worked out the ending, there’s still something chilling about the conclusion and the closing sentence is one hard to forget.

[chatterbox_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I came to this book with great expectations, and walked away from it deeply annoyed. Notwithstanding lots of small historical errors (Bruno's grandmother sings "La vie en rose" years before it was even written; Hitler didn't go out for private dinners and during the period in question, was almost never in Berlin, and certainly didn't dine out with Eva Braun in Berlin) that many target readers won't pick up on or care about, the real problem is the narrator. Boyne tells us he's nine years old, but he has the awareness level of a 3- or 4-year-old. The son of a high-ranking SS officer would have been a member of the junior division of the Hitler Youth; he CERTAINLY would have been aware of the Fuhrer's identity and image, making a key scene particularly impossible. (Hitler's image was everywhere...) The naiviete about Auschwitz and the treatment of the Jews might have lasted for a few days, but only a particularly stupid child of 9 wouldn't have picked up that his family had ended up at a KZ. The result is jarring as Bruno equates his plight with that of Shmuel. Either he's dim-witted or the author tried to ramp up the dramatic intensity and failed miserably. Since this isn't aimed at very young children, I think Boyne could have made Bruno a credible protagonist and still made his points -- in an intelligent way.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a brilliant, heartbreaking fable, in which we view the Holocaust through the eyes of ignorant, childish innocence. It doesn't make sense...but should it, really? This is a must-read for everyone.

[lorifox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast, quick read written from the perspective of a 9-year-old boy. It’s heartbreaking in its sparsity just as much from what is not said as what is. Grab a tissue.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible book from a different perspective! The 9-year-old narrator's father serves as Commandant of Auschwitz. The story begins when the family leaves its nice Berlin home to go live in a house not nearly so nice and with no playmates. From his bedroom window he sees people clothed in striped pajamas living on the other side of the fence in huts. He befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives on the other side of the fence. The author perhaps overplays childhood ignorance/innocence in the story. I find it difficult to believe the boy did not know what was going on; however, I found the story fascinating because of the perspective. Most books would use a narrator inside the camp rather than outside, and using the voice from the outside created impact here. While I want to give it 5 stars, I cannot quite do that because of the believability factor. I listened to the audio book read by Michael Maloney. It was well done, and the musical interludes were beautiful.

[ashewert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the story of a young boy who becomes friends with another young boy through a fence. What the reader doesn't initially realize is that this story is taking place is the reason that the fence is separating the two of them. One boy is very well off, has a rich family, a beautiful house and a father who is not a very nice man. The other boy has been brought here due to the orders of Hitler during WWII to exonerate the Jews. As the days go on the boys get closer and closer until eventually, the well off boy ends up on the other side of the fence and eventually in one of the gas chambers. This book is extremely powerful and shows that just because your religion may be different from others around you, you are still a person and should be treated that way. It is geared towards older students, middle school/high school, and would work well as a tie into a history lesson about the Holocaust. There is also a film that goes along with it as well that would lend well to a book/movie comparison!

[northern_light-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's very hard to review this book without spoilers. Although published as a children's book I think it's one that deserves to be read by adults too. Set in WWII it's strength is in the things it doesn't say. It tells the story of Bruno who lives with his family in Berlin in what appears to be an idyllic life. One day his father gets a promotion and they move to the country isolated from everyone. Lost and lonely Bruno explores his surroundings and what he finds will change his life and that of his family for ever. Yes obviously this couldn't actually have happened but in many ways to me that adds to the story rather than diminishing it. A book which will stay with the reader long after its finished.

[pdcread · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a disturbing and poignant war story, centred around a young boy who is son of someone fairly senior in the German army.

They live in Berlin, and at very short notice are asked to move away from the city and to a place with no other children around. He finds his way to a fence and makes friends with a boy on the other side. As the friendship grows, he brings him food and wants him to come and play. There is a lot of tension in the family as the mother does not want to be there.

The book is written is such a way that the place where they are is revealed little by little in each chapter. Significant words that he speaks in the early chapters are phonetic and slowly there true relevance are revealed, as well as the location of the family.

I thought that it is a hugely powerful book, written from a child's perspective on a horrendous chapter of human history.

[edwinkort · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Twee keer gelezen, en ik kan toch niets anders zeggen dan:

'GA DE FILM BEKIJKEN', die is 1000x beter dan het boek.

Gauw vergeten en over tot iets anders.

[msf59 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“The people I see from my window. In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.' 'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all, Bruno.' Bruno frowned. 'They're not?' he asked.”“You’re my best friend, Shmuel,’ he said. ‘My best friend for life.”  It has taken me forever to get to this book, although I did see the film several years ago. It was well worth the wait. There are scores of reviews on this one and I am sure most people know the premise, so I won't go in depth. The story takes place in a concentration camp, in 1942 and focuses on the son of the commandant, who is nine years old and he befriends a prisoner, a Jewish boy his own age. Yes, this may stretch the reader's credibility, but it is wonderfully written and truly heart-breaking. If, like me, you have put off reading this one, give it a try. It is a quick read and packs quite a punch. The audiobook is excellent too.

[marsenault13 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read some of the reviews, and find them very interesting. Yes, the characters are written as much younger than they are supposed to be. Yes, much of the details are incorrect, or unbelievable. No, a child would not be wandering around outside a concentration camp. I highly doubt that they would live butted up against the concentration camp "courtyard". The forced mis-hearing of certain words is unrealistic. But the message of the book, itself, was moving. I won't spoil, but I didn't expect the end up until the last few pages.

[sean191 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I initially was going to give this 4 stars since I enjoyed the reading, evening though the subject is obviously dark...but the more I thought about it, the more i had problems in part because it didn't even come close to showing how horrible the subject was. The first problem was a minor nag at first, but it grew to something that was grating on me. Boyne uses some word play to put the main character's naivete out on display, but it's incredibly lazy word play that jumped out at me from the start. Bruno, the young boy (I believe 8 at the start of the story) refers to the Fuhrer as "The Fury" and Auschwitz as "Out-With" respectively. There's even acknowledgement that he's mispronouncing both these words. But he's German...he wouldn't have been pronouncing these words in English (and in fact, it's acknowledged he doesn't speak English). The German words for "Fury" and "Out With" sound nothing like the words they were supposed to be. It's lazy and gimmicky. The second problem and definitely the bigger, the focus of the story was on Bruno. Readers I take it are to feel bad for him... but that takes away from the tragedy of his Jewish friend. The third problem was the limited scope of the tragedy. It's largely contained within the story of Bruno and to a lesser extent his friend Schmuel with a couple of small side characters we're made to feel bad about. With Holocaust deniers on the rise and those who lived through the horrors nearly gone, having stories that "introduce" a new generation to one of the most horrific events of modern times in such a limited scope is problematic to me. I don't think Boyne, an Irish writer, had any real commitment to getting across the horrors of the Holocaust, he just used it as an established foundation for a fictional tale. It leads me to feel he was taking a tragedy and manipulating readers for profit.

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a re-read for me. I read this book many years ago, but revisited it. It appears to be an innocent story to a degree. Innocent in the sense that Bruno, a 9 year old boy, is very naive and does not understand what is going on in Germany during the Second World War. He is concerned with having friends and a nice house, he does not know what the "Fury" is planning for "Out-With". His father is the Commandant and is a very important man. The people behind the fence all wear the same striped pajamas and there are a lot of them. He makes friends with Schmuel, also a 9 year old boy and they spend hours every day talking to each other through the fence. Even though Schmuel tells him terrible things that have happened to him over the past while, he still does not seem to understand what is going on. It is really too bad that he does not know, as the future actions of his life depended on that knowledge. A sad story that was made into a move.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A tale of an unlikely friendship between 2 nine-year old boys who meet in Auschwitz. One is the son of the commandant of the camp (Bruno), and the other is a Polish Jew imprisoned in the camp (Shmuel). Bruno doesn't like that they moved from Berlin to Auschwitz, as he has no friends. He wanders along the fence of the camp and meets Shmuel. They become friends, but Bruno doesn't understand why Shmuel is on the other side of the fence and doesn't have the same freedoms as Bruno.
This is a beautifully told story of these 2 children who become friends and don't judge each other based on nationality. Their friendship has a terrible conclusion.
I highly recommend this novel, told through the eyes of a child.

[headinherbooks_27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sooo sad but so much meaning behind the words.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm sorry to say that this book did not live up to my expectations. Perhaps it was because I listened to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas so soon after The Diary of Anne Frank. I felt as if the author was trying to manipulate the reader's emotions. There are so many true accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust that this seems like unnecessary exploitation of its millions of victims. I couldn't buy into Bruno's innocence at 10 years old (when the story began). By the end of the book's time line, he would have been nearly old enough to join the Hitler Youth. Given his father's position, it would have been expected. It seems I'm not alone in my reaction to this book, since the author felt it necessary to address such criticisms in an interview that was included at the end of the audiobook.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bruno, a rather simple minded nine year old boy, the son of a concentration camp commandant, makes friends through the fence with Shmuel and you know it won't end well.A very strange read with a very hard to believe in central character, it is still moving.

[sonokoala · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I finally got around reading this book on my one hour train commute and finished it during this time. I'm not even a fast reader, but the Boy in the Striped Pajamas is just that superflous. I get that Boyne chose to make Bruno naive to convey his ideas of innocence and the horrors of the Holocaust, but as the 9 year old son of a high ranking SS member in 1942 Bruno's character is beyond unbelievable.

At his age he would have been subjected to propaganda at school and at home, and would most likely have been a member of the Hitlerjugend and possibly, as an SS-elite's son, attended a NAPOLA-school. He would have been another cog in a sick system by that age already.

Bruno's naivety cloud the real horrors that actually happened, he is a most self-centered and shallow character.

[sharn_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well. As long as this book has been out, movie too, I’ve been able to escape spoilers which is pretty amazing so I never expected the ending. Ugh. There’s not much more to be said about this one that hasn’t already been said so I’ll leave it here.

[karenvg3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh boy. I’m not sure how I hadn’t read this book yet through all my schooling, but I’m so glad I did. It is utterly gut wrenching and that end... I just kept yelling NO! Don’t do it in my head. The story of Bruno and Shmuel will stick with me for a very long time. 5 🌟 for sure.

[empressreece · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read with my son as part of our WWII/ holocaust studies - we both loved it! He also watched the movie at school too and enjoyed it. I haven't seen the movie yet so can't offer a comparison but I hope to remedy that soon.

[clamato_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have had this book for years and only just got around to reading it last week. I was completely stunned by the ending. I didn't much care for the writing style but got past that. With not knowing anything about the book other than it was about a WWII prison camp, I kept on. When I finished it, I held it in my hands for the longest time just dumbfounded. Your imagination will help fill in what happens after. Brutal and will stay with you.

[mahsdad · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bruno is a 9 year old boy living in Berlin with his family during WWII. He comes home, only to find that his entire family is packing up their stuff. They are moving to a new place that he calls "Out-With". His father is ordered there by "The Fury". He looks out of his bedroom window and sees a big fence and many men and boys on the other side of the fence wearing the same striped pajamas. He doesn't really comprehend where he is or who those people are. He goes out exploring and befriends a boy who is sitting on the other side. Throughout their relationship, he wonders why he can never go visit his only friend. The story comes to an inevitable conclusion. A sad tragic, but powerful tale of the Holocaust from a naive and innocent perspective. Worthwhile, but easy read, as it is aimed at a younger audience.7/10

[jenn88-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bruno is a nine-year-old German boy who lived in Germany until his father was reassigned to “Out-With” by the “Fury.” Bruno is bored there and does not like his new home so he begins exploring his new surroundings. He is confused about the people on the other side of the fence near his house because they wear striped pajamas and seem sad. He becomes friends with a boy on the other side of the fence and they meet daily to talk about their lives until something tragic happens.

[margaretpemberton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was one of those Wow books that you read now and again. I was lucky enough to read it as a proof and then had the pleasure of taking John on some school visits when the book came out. When I started to analyse the story I felt that there were some elements that did not convince me; such as how the two boys managed to meet in secret, in such an environment. However I think that as with all good stories, if you suspend your disbelief then it really is an incredibly chilling story of man's inhumanity to man.

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bruno is a nine-year-old boy who lives with his parents and sister in Berlin during World War II. Bruno doesn't understand why the servants must now call his father "Commandant" and why his family must move away from their friends and home in Berlin after "The Fury" has visited their home. In his new home at "Out-With," Bruno has no friends to play with, and when he looks out the window of his bedroom, there is a wire fence as far as he can see. On the other side of the fence, everyone seems to wear striped pajamas. One day, a lonely and bored Bruno explores the perimeter of the fence and meets his new best friend, Shmuel, who lives on the other side.I bought this book several years ago, thinking one of my sons would read it, but they seemed to have no interest. Several weeks ago, my younger son came home from school and told me that he was reading a really good book that his teacher told him about - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I thought that I should probably read it so that we could discuss it. The book is very simplistically written as for a late elementary or early middle-grader, but I'm not sure that someone at that age would understand some of the nuances of the story. The book has a dark twist at the end which one who is not familiar with what happened in the Nazi concentration camps might miss. I did notice on Amazon that the book was for Grade 9 and up. I think adults will probably grasp the point the author was trying to make with this "fable" more than the children for whom it was written. Of course, as a nine-year-old boy, Bruno is very naive and innocent. I do wonder whether the son of a Nazi concentration camp commandant would be ignorant about who the Jews were; I tend to think that someone who is obviously that high in the Nazi party would have been very vituperative towards the Jews and would have made sure that his children were given that message. Bruno seems more like a four or five-year-old from that standpoint than a nine-year-old.The other thing that bothered me a little is that Bruno calls Auschwitz "Out-With." As someone who speaks a little German, "Out-With" would translate back into German as "aus mit" which would not be mistaken for Auschwitz. I do not see how a German hearing Auschwitz could think aus mit. This is a minor point, but one that bugs me, nonetheless.I was expecting the book to be a sad one but instead found the ending very haunting. I'm very glad that I read it and I certainly understood the point the author was making. I cannot say that I "enjoyed" reading it, but it was an exceptional and powerful book, and I think the ending will stay with me always.

[tonifgmamtc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow what a story this is. How precious life is. No matter who you are there is something to gain from reading this. It's amazing, with no preset notions, how kids see things in life.

[daftboy1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the innocent story of Bruno son of a Nazi commander, they move from Berlin to run the Auschwitz POW camp. Bruno is bored but soon after exploring the area he meets a young boy called Shmuel who just happens to live on the other side of the fence.Bruno doesn't understand about Jews and Nazis he just wants a boy his own age he can play with.He thinks all the prisoners wear pyjamas.Spoiler alert On Bruno's last day before he moves back to Berlin he volunteers to help Shmuel locate his missing father he climbs under the fence but Bruno and Shmuel are rounded up and marched to the Gas chamber. Sad but powerful beautifully written book.