Posts Tagged ‘reading’
Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
I don’t think we’ve ever seen Stockhausen syndrome quite like the relationship between philosopher Hannah Arendt and her Nazi jailor Karl in Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library. Arendt, as played by a very effecting Ella Dershowitz, has a mind like quicksilver. As soon as she observes jailor Karl’s ego needs to pull rank, she defers and reigns in her erudition in exchange for survival. Karl, once somewhat of a student himself, is in awe of her and we see his struggles to follow orders clash with his own instinctual curiosity. What can a good Nazi do in the hands of such a fine German mind, never mind that she’s a Jew?
Her crime it seems was to have been seen copying images of antisemitism from papers for a group who sends them abroad to advertise what’s really going on in Germany. She is aghast at hearing this…her pure research is what took her to the library and nothing else.
Hannah must balance a nature in pursuit of truth with a writer’s talent for bending the narrative in order to save her own skin. After all, she certainly was not uninterested in Jewish issues and Zionism as she tries to convince Karl. In fact, quite the contrary. Her deception is so sweet…she has an authentic love of German thinking and wouldn’t think of involving her ex-lover Heidegger for help. For every turn Karl makes to accuse her of a misdeed, she does a sharp right or left turn, leaving him in the dust. If she had any crime, it was neglecting her own research to hunt around through the files for a recipe for her mother’s favorite cake. The care and intelligence with which she describes the ingredients and making of the dessert is the same thoroughness she puts into her political theories.
Hannah has one visitor, Drew Hirshfeld, whose character Erich is symbolic of so many Jews who could not believe that their beliefs that they were true Germans meant nothing to the Nazis. He is a lawyer and has heard of her plight through the inner circles. Hannah is surprised that he has come or else pretends. Either way she is not excited to have him represent her, neither wanting her affiliation with anything Zionistic to be recognized nor believing he can do anything to help. He has the shadow of death all over him as he speaks of other lawyers who have been brought down while still trying to convince her and mostly himself that he will survive.
The environment is frightening, yet the humorous banter and cigarette sharing become between Karl and Hannah, gives relief. Through it we feel a razor thin light of hope. Karl has a child of his own and is not unfeeling to Hannah’s concern for her mother also imprisoned. Something stirs between them…perhaps it is their love of dancing or the way Hannah finishes the German folk poem Karl had begun reciting; both touchstones of their common humanity.
The acting is terrific in this play and the simple prison cell set serves as a blank slate for the plethora of ideas that playwright Bader make dance within the walls of the cell.
The play produced by Luna Stage is running at 59 East 59th Theaters until November 10th.
Tuesdays with Morrie
c Jeremy Varner
I can’t remember if I ever watched Morrie Schwartz on the Ted Koppel show as I may have confused him with Andy Rooney who signed off on 60 Minutes. But the book Tuesdays with Morrie was very familiar. It was written by Mitch Albom and explores his very close friendship in the last year of Morrie’s life, when Morrie lay “living” with ALS.
This memory play produced by Sea Dog Theater is a touching story about mentorship, life, and the importance of love above all else. Chris Domig, who is also the artistic director of Red Dog, does a fine job as Mitch, conveying the angst of a young man, unsure of himself and the choices he has made in life which give him success but not peace. He is a gifted jazz pianist who throws over his art for a real career in sports journalism, but something is missing. When he chances upon his old Brandeis professor and learns that he is ill, he makes weekly visits to his coach, enabling them both to put closure on a special relationship that Mitch abandoned while trying to grow up. He starts out the show playing jazz piano, so the audience doesn’t know if he’s a warm up or part of the show.
It’s a tough role…… Mitch is a whiny guy who is frightened of his feelings. He needs the warmth and wit of Morrie to come alive and as played by the fabulous Len Cariou, he eventually does.
Mr. Cariou seems feeble at first, holding onto the piano for balance…but when he opens his mouth, there is so much richness, that even when his character is close to death, you feel you are still with the most alive person in the room, including the audience. When he tells Mitch about trying to have kids, his face takes on the look of someone remembering all the good sex he and Connie, his wife had, while trying. Of course, the one-time demon Barber of Fleet Street is sexy still, with his deep, resonating voice as he goes through the stages of his last year with grace and strength.
Morrie and Mitch’s conversations about life and death are humane and identifiable. Morrie is a man who sees the big picture while understanding that it’s the small gestures that make a good life.
The writing, thanks to Jeffrey Hatcher and Albom is sharp and it’s terrific that Mitch taped those conversations because we really get to hear Morrie’s wit first hand.
Directed by Erwin Mass, the show moves at a nice pace and cleverly uses one main prop. The chair Morrie sits on becomes the symbol of his body’s changes, with Mitch adding foot pedals and a head rest as Morrie becomes sicker. This gives Mitch something to touch and fuss over…until he’s finally able to touch Morrie’s head and surrender to his real feelings of love.
The only pick I have is that Jerry Rubin went to Oberlin College. It was Abbie Hoffman who studied at Brandeis and after seeing this wonderful play, I wonder if Abbie’s life would have been different if he too had been coached by Morrie Schwartz.
Tuesdays with Morrie runs until 4/20 at St. George’s Episcopal Church, located at 209 East 16 St., between 3 Ave. and Rutherford Place
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