The theater is an excellent place to look at what is real and what is false, and whether what is occurring on stage actually happened, and why, or if the playwright is taking us along on a leap of fantasy directly from his, or her, imagination. "Way to Heaven," which opened last night as a New Jewish Theatre production at the Jewish Community Center, is another view of an extremely strange event that took place during World War II, written by Juan Mayorga, a Spanish playwright.
In the middle of the war, reports of the Holocaust, of concentration camps and furnaces and extermination of large numbers of people, began to leak out into the American press. The International Red Cross heard the reports, too, and decided to send investigators to see if civilian prisoners were treated as well as military prisoners, to see if the Nazis were following the rules of the Geneva Convention. When the Germans heard this, they developed a scenario. The camp at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia (Terezin is the Czech word), became a small village, with a soccer field, a town hall, houses, even a synagogue. Inmates were given roles, and scripts, and direction, and when the inspectors arrived, in June, 1944, they saw a play, went home and wrote reports that all was well. The "actors" were shipped to Auschwitz or Dachau and murdered.
Mayorga's play bounces here and there in a non-sequential, non-linear fashion, but it's very strong, and Doug Finlayson directs without flair or furbelow, but with real style. The three main characters are excellent. Jerry Vogel is the Red Cross investigator, Jason Cannon the German commandant of the camp and Terry Meddows the unofficial leader of the prisoners, given the task of being what amounts to the "director" of the play created by Cannon. And there is a chilling, heart-rending performance by Elizabeth Teeter as a little girl who tries to teach her doll to swim in a small stream that crosses the stage, and who sings, too.
The play is divided into five sections: Vogel's lengthy monologue opens things. It's years later as he talks about what he saw and how he responded, and how he was a victim of an awesome snow-job by the commander, who quoted Spinoza and Shakespeare and showed off his library. Vogel remembers how Cannon told him about the town clock, more than 400 years old, and how Meddows accompanied them as they strolled through tow n.
We then jump backward in time to a scene by the townspeople. Boys play with a top; one asks his friend what his sister looks like when she takes her clothes off. A young couple (Scott McMaster and Julie Layton) talk about their future, bicker about their present. Young Teeter is very patient with her doll-student, reminding her to breathe, to use her arms and legs. The boys are played by Braden Phillips. Parker Donovan, Matthew Howard, Leo Ramsey and Drew Redington, and Shaina Schrooten portrays another young woman.
Cannon takes the stage next for a long monologue, displaying his knowledge, quoting various philosophers, discussing the "Jewish problem," and, whenever he fails to understand something, falling back on, "It must be Jewish humor." He's physically perfect for the role and, like Vogel and Meddows, makes a vivid impression.
The fourth section involves Cannon and Meddows, selecting the cast, discussing problems. Cannon forces Meddows to reject some actors, though both know the rejects will either be on a train to a death camp or on "the way to heaven" (himmelweg in German), the name sardonically given a ramp from the railroad station to a building that the Commandant describes as an infirmary but which is a gas chamber that the Red Cross representative does not enter. And when Meddows resists, Cannon has a simple, irrefutable statement, "If they're working here, they're not on the train."
Along the way, Meddows asks Cannon why the Jews have been given shoes without laces, and Cannon does not answer. He doesn't refuse; he just goes off in another direction. Did he drop a line? Did the author lose his train of thought? My answers: It's difficult to run (away) when your shoes are flopping around your feet, and I wouldn't put potential weapons in the hands of my prisoners. Or maybe it's to prevent them hanging themselves.
And in the final section, Meddows talks to his cast, cajoling and supporting and teaching and praising. Knowing the results, it's heart-breaking.
It's a terrific evening of theater, sensitive, well-acted and powerful, and it will run through Feb. 12. Tech work is strong, with John Stark's twisted forest backdrop looking as if it had come from the Brothers Grimm and Michele Friedman's costumes looking quite proper for the time and place. And a quibble: With all discussion of the trains, and even though we're told that they arrive at 6 a.m., it would have added to the effect to hear a little more whistle now and then.
Way to Heaven opened last night (January 26) as a production of the New Jewish Theatre at the Jewish Community Center, to run through Feb. 12
— Joe
Comments
2 responses
Joe, there are a number of faint, distant train whistles in the production!
Robin
Joe: I’m really looking forward to seeing the play since reading your blog review. Doris Gordon L.