One of the highlights of this years’ Sydney Festival theatre program is ‘The Pianist’, a stage adaptation by Mikhail Rudy from the memoirs by Wladyslaw Szpilman, currently playing upstairs at Belvoir Street theatre.

Many people are already familiar with Szpilman’s memories from the 2002 film adaptation by Roman Polanski, from a screenplay by Ronald Harwood, which took out three Academy Awards. The tagline to the film summed it up. ‘Music was his passion, survival was his masterpiece’. Once one of Europe’s most celebrated pianists, the Jewish pianist escaped a Nazi internment camp and lived out his days hiding in the ruins of buildings in his home city until the Russian liberation of Warsaw.

The upstairs Belvoir stage is shared by Sean Taylor who plays Szpilman, with the writer himself on piano, providing musical accompaniment. Rudy was inspired to conceive the adaptation as he saw parallels between his own personal story and that of Szpilman’s. He grew up in Russia under the Stalinist regime, and both his grandparents were executed for no apparant reason. Like Szpilman, what kept Rudy going was his love of music, ‘the centre of his inner life’.

Music is at the core, the heart of Rudy’s adaptation, directed by Rachael McDonald. Jo Briscoe’s set reflects this, gathered around the stage are music stands with Stephen Hawker spotlighting the stand at the centre of the stage.

Rudy achieves his goal in his play, ‘music should not be seen solely as an illustration of the text, but as a major component in dramatic development’. Whilst the narrative unfolds, Rudy, one of Europe’s finest pianists, plays excerpts from the works of Fredric Chopin and compositions by Szpilman himself.

Sean Taylor gave a fine performance as Szpilman, leading the audience through Szpilman’s disturbing, unpredictable journey.

An inspiring tribute to the power of music to sustain the spirit, ‘The Pianist’ is playing upstairs at Belvoir Street until January 27.