[1] Ghetto premièred at the Haifa Municipal Theatre in Israel and the Freie Volksbühne, Berlin, in 1984,[1] with folk and jazz singer Esther Ofarim as Hayyah.

[4] The play begins in 1983 in Tel Aviv, as Srulik, an old one-armed man, recalls the last performance in the Jewish theatre in Vilna Ghetto, of which he was the artistic director.

To the Jews left in Vilna, he is their enemy, constantly making decisions in league with the Germans that cause families to be separated and people to be killed.

But by cooperating and striking up a quasi-friendship with Kittel, Gens saves the lives of many who would normally be killed by obtaining work permits and setting up sewing factories to repair Nazi uniforms.

Weiskopf, a former factory worker, approaches Gens with a plan to create a sewing workshop to repair Nazi uniforms.

Weiskopf is only interested in achieving a higher status among the ghetto leadership, but Gens sees in his plan the opportunity to save more people that could be employed in the workshop.

Kruk is offended by the idea of "Theatre in a Graveyard", but Gens insists that the theater will unite the people of the ghetto.

Kittel orders Weiskopf to provide the actors with costumes, and they improvise a scene depicting a debate between ghetto leaders over which diabetics should be given the limited doses of insulin available.

Kittel then bursts in, ordering Gens to eliminate every third child in the ghetto families, citing a new dictate from the Führer forbidding the increase of the Jewish race.

The selection begins, and Kruk narrates a tale of Gens saving the life of a young boy by giving him to a family with only one child.

The man removes his shrouds and is revealed to be Kittel, who puts on glasses to become a new character, Dr. Ernst Paul, a German scholar of Judaism.

Srulik's dummy offends Kittel by insulting German military strength, but Weiskopf calms him down by offering him brandy and convincing him to let him meet with Hermann Göring in Berlin to negotiate a new factory deal.

Gens, alone and drunk after the party, proclaims his objective to save as many Jews as possible, and his intention to submit himself to Jewish justice if he survives the war.

Kruk reminds Paul of the approaching Russian army and denies his involvement with the armed underground resistance in the ghetto.

Gens bursts onto the scene and orders the anti-Nazi parade to stop, as well as commenting on the lack of Jewish nationalism in the ghetto.

The crowd disperses, and Hayyah tells Srulik that she plans to leave the ghetto that night through a sewage duct and join the underground.

Kittel arrives, inquiring about Gens's intentions for the theatre space, and Weiskopf grows desperate, demanding his meeting with Göring.

The bullets that destroy the Dummy wound Srulik's arm as well, and he becomes the old one-armed Narrator from the beginning of the play, saying "Our last performance?

Our last performance...Wait a moment..." Srulik – the narrator, whose memory of the last days of the ghetto serve as the crux of the story.

Srulik and Kruk also harbor romantic feelings for her, but neither are given the chance to act on them Weiskopf – an entrepreneur and former factory worker, who ensures that a new workshop for mending Nazi uniforms is established in the ghetto.

He is working on a chronicle of life in the ghetto and rarely sets foot outside the library, preferring to ensure that the events taking place around him are preserved for posterity.

The character is based on a real person, also named Herman Kruk, whose diaries chronicled life in the Vilna ghetto.

Numerous minor characters that may be played each by individuals or by an ensemble as small as 15, including the Hasid – a fortune teller Ooma and Judith – actresses 3 actors – playing ghetto citizens and numerous stage roles Elia Geivish Yitzhok Geivish Yankel Polikanski – 3 young black marketeers who are hanged for murdering the Hasid Dessler – a Jewish ghetto policeman and later head of the Jewish police A small musical ensemble is also required, at least including 2 violins, accordion, trumpet, clarinet, guitar and percussion.