."....The Rubens Hotel is a real place. It served as the headquarters of the Polish Government in exile after the Germans occupied Poland at the start of World War Two. In the show, it also hosts a Club for the airmen who fought alongside the Allies in special squadrons attached to the Royal Air Force. *

My father was one of  those Polish Air Force fliers, remaining in Britain after the war, marrying an Englishwoman and raising a family.
In recreating the atmosphere of the Rubens, I wanted to open a window onto an era that a few remember personally but most would never know about.

The show draws on original anecdotes from Polish, English and Australian aircrews and soldiers, on military histories, my own family archives and the perspective of having an Anglo-Polish background.

 Inspiration for  Renata, the  central character,  was drawn from the stories  of  real-life Polish entertainers  who performed throughout Europe and the Middle East during the War .

Through her eyes, the Polish experience of the Battle of Britain,  Monte Cassino and the Warsaw Uprising comes  to life. It is a story of courage, loss and survival and how one woman confronts daily life in a country at war amongst a people very different to her own.
Her reminiscences are poignant, heartbreaking, comic and  bitter .

But first and foremost, Renata is an entertainer, and the heightened emotions of wartime form the perfect backdrop for her interpretations of some of the great popular  music of the era - the wit of Noel Coward, the passion of Piaf, the patriotism of Piaf, the wholesome cheerfulness of Deanna Durbin, the restrained romanticism of Tino Rossi and the anthems which inspired the Polish fighters.

Renata at the Rubens is historical cabaret with an emphasis on entertainment."

                                            Janette Obuch (Renata)

   *   at the  Federation of Poles in Great Britain
           website is a full history of Poland in World 
          War II