The Veil Performs “The Hiding Place”

The Veil Theatre’s annual production was the heart-wrenching, hope-filled story of The Hiding Place. Throughout the weekend, Torrey-Gray Auditorium was filled with students, families, faculty, and the community, all coming to see the three performances of the show. With Professor Kelli Worrall of the Communications faculty playing the older Corrie Ten Boom, and student actor Alison Loner playing the younger Corrie, The Veil told the story of the Ten Boom family. Following the real-life narrative, the play detailed the events of a family that hid Jews during the holocaust in Holland during WWII. 

From Corrie’s work with the Dutch underground to the depths of Nazi concentration camps, the story was woven with themes of darkness and light, great suffering and an even greater love. Through light-hearted scenes of the family at home in the beginning, the characters quickly came alive on stage. The scenes of Corrie and her sister, Betsie, in prison and the concentration camps had the audience on the verge of tears, fearing what would come next. Those tears, of course, fell at the climax of the play during the Christ-like scene where Corrie forgave her captors, at whose hand she and Betsie and the whole Ten Boom family had suffered so much. 

As one of their most emotional productions yet, The Veil exceeded expectations with this play, meriting a standing ovation at the end. The outstanding work of the set design and backstage crew should not be forgotten either. Every ounce of the show and its acting was directed to the glory of God. When it was over, all could see that The Veil team had fulfilled their goal, as their mission statement reads, “to express God’s truth and beauty by creating and producing theatrical storytelling that reaches the student body and the Chicago community.”