The Happiest Man on Earth at the Sydney Opera House is a singled-hander about the life of Eddie Jaku OAM, who for the majority of his life was a much loved identity in Sydney’s Jewish community.
Born Abraham Jakubowicz in Leipzig, Germany, Eddie grew up as part of that city’s thriving artistic and cultural community, that is until Adolf Hitler used the ballot box to gain power.
What happened after that was a fate that also befell millions of Jews, Gypsies, gays and the infirmed across Europe as the Nazi’s systemically at first, incarcerated them, and later entered a program of wholesale elimination.
In his early teens Eddie was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, from which months later he escaped. Soon after he was captured again, this time sent to Auschwitz where he was designated the tattoo 172338.
What he saw and experienced no human should ever witness, let alone being part of the final solution, which included the death march out of the camp towards the end of the war.
On gaining his freedom in 1945, Eddie reflected not on the horrors of his experience, but on the small gestures of compassion, even though his extended family was decimated.
In a support camp he meets his wife, Flore, and they eventually migrate to Australia, where he establishes a successful business and raises two sons.
While volunteering at the Sydney Jewish Museum, and despite his war experiences, he writes the book, The Happiest Man on Earth, in which he speaks about his gratitude for life, and above all, the connection with other human beings. Eddie’s main message is to resist hatred in all forms.
The book is a world-wide success, and leads American playwright Mark St. Germain to adapt it for the stage, which has opened at the Playhouse as a production from the Melbourne company Monstrous Theatre, along with Sydney’s Shalom Collective, and featuring Anton Berezin in the role of Eddie.
Berezin’s partner in Monstrous, Theresa Borg, directs, which she does well, as she maintains Eddie’s compassionate tone, but overall could have injected more tension in critical moments of his life.
Berezin’s approach to Eddie’s character maintains a measured tone throughout play, even when he is recounting the horrors of the camps and the death march, which has the effect of giving us a look at Eddie’s almost life-long embrace of compassion and forgiveness as a philosophy.
But this even-handed approach also leaves us wanting more in terms of understanding the external forces shaping his life and that of the wider world, while his character’s arc could have worked better with the play’s elements of sound and music. Even so, Berezin does a remarkable job of making Eddie’s story believable and engaging.
The set by Jacob Battista and Sophie Woodward is effective for both Europe and Australia, consisting of a shed on one side of the stage and a dwelling on the other, joined by paving stones.
At the back of stage is an unfurled clothes hoist, representing the electrified barb wire of the camps, and later, it unfurls and lights up, representing the celebration of life in Australia.
Lighting from Finnegan Comte-Harvey is effective as it works with the silhouette of a suburb, and denotes changes of the day, seasons and events such as the aerial bombardments.
This is an important story, particularly for non-Jewish people, who have not grown up with the survivors of the Holocaust and may not have heard their recounts of the war first hand.
At 99 years of age, in 2019 Eddie gave a TEDx talk that shared his vision of hope around the world, and proved that he was indeed The Happiest Man on Earth.
The Happiest Man on Earth
Playhouse – Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney
Performance: Wednesday 13 May 2026
Season continues to 17 May 2026
Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com
For more information, visit: www.monstroustheatre.com.au for details.
Images: Anton Berezin as Eddie Jaku – photos by David Hooley
Review: John Moyle