The characters in the monologues that make up a Leap
seek a home, some kind of anchorage or self-realization, but circumstances or
fate ensure that their goal remains elusive.
Cato and Leendert are a pair of young lovers in Rotterdam
during the spring of 1940. As bombs rain down on the city, Cato roams the
streets in desperation, searching for Leendert, who didn’t show up for their
meeting…
In the next monologue, a doctor amid the same bombs and
chaos finds himself faced with a dilemma when a wounded German general enters
his O.R. The general's fate is
in his hands...
Thirty years before this, Jewish dressmaker Mendel
Bronstein decides to try his chances in the new world, but the journey from
Rotterdam proves too much for his disintegrating mind.
In her home in Vienna, Alma Mahler reflects on her past
with her husband Gustav, the famous composer. Having given up her own musical
ambitions and borne his children, she is torn between her husband and the man
who was once her lover…
In the final monologue, a young woman, Sara, spends a night
in her parents’ home—which she enjoys only because they are away. She has come
through a difficult year, both romantically and socially, and now a period of
vibrant happiness seems to be dawning.
Translated from the Dutch by Jeannette K. Ringold.
