Bubbie is a grandmother in 1970s New York City who was once the darling of Yiddish Theatre in pre-war Poland. Although her granddaughter Jenny is enchanted by her tales of the old world, her daughter Red, a TV writer, will do anything to keep from looking back at the Holocaust and her childhood in Warsaw.
What Is the Story of The People in the Picture?
At the heart of The People in the Picture is the story of Raisel (known as Bubbie to her granddaughter Jenny), a darling of the Yiddish theater in pre-war Poland who is now helping raise Jenny in 1970s New York City. Jenny always has a tape recorder in hand and loves hearing her grandmother’s tales of her life as an actress in Europe, but her mother, Bubbie’s daughter Red, wants to hear nothing about those horrendous days during World War II. The show progresses through Bubbie’s storytelling, and we see all that Raisel went through to bring herself and her daughter through the war alive. While those old memories may be crisp as ever, Red is struggling to deal with her aging mother’s declining health in the present.