“Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” is the world premiere play, by Jenny Lyn Bader, that kicks off Luna Stage’s main stage productions for the 2019-2020 season, and runs through November 17, and it’s an intellectual’s dream. This play is thoughtful and thought provoking, an antidote to the summer blockbusters and shark-nadoes that populate the Twitter-sphere. We get a look inside a very particular episode in the life of one woman–a Jewish, college educated woman in 1933, who may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and how she kept her wits about her. Effecting her escape from Nazi Germany, Hannah Arendt would later become one of the foremost writers and thinkers of the mid 20th century, but her midcentury modern might never have happened had she refused to engage her adversary in a non-violent manner.
Hannah Arendt (Giuliana Carr) is a young married woman, whose greatest delight is in wandering the Prussian State Library. On the tradewinds of her thoughts, she’s carried from hither to yon and while, one day searching for a recipe for a special dessert, she copies something that seems suspicious to censors in the early days of the Nazi party in 1933. Karl (Brett Temple) is a young officer, who has recently gotten a “promotion” from law enforcement to political police work. He is a very rules-oriented person, who finds himself in a no-man’s land of political intrigue–there are no rules for how his beloved rules must be applied. Erich (Karl Kenzler) is the attorney sent by a radical group to help Hannah, but does his argument truly apply to Hannah’s situation? By accepting this assistance, might she put herself in greater jeopardy? Such is the occupation of the audience for the next hour or so, and you may find yourself with different opinions at different points.
Director Ari Laura Kreith has given us an intellectual mystery during which I found myself sometimes leaning forward and sometimes sitting back, responding to the currents of thought swirling about. Stephanie Osin Cohen gives us the suggestion of a very sere jail cell. Following Cohen’s color palette, Deborah Caney’s costumes give us very little color and Caroline Eng’s sound and Jennifer Fok’s lighting underline the gravity of the situation. Echoing sound and cool light, sometimes in chiaroscuro relief, echoes the reasoning and conversational exchange from a time when the world may not have been less biased, but it was certainly more polite. Get tickets today and take your sharpest friends with you. The ending leaves you hungry for more.
The performance I attended had a surprise talkback featuring Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, and playwright Bader. The pair, who happen to be married to one another, gave us greater insight on one of the most unique philosophers of the 20th century, whose work could truly help us in these troubled times. I came away wanting to know more, and with the desire to engage someone very far on the other side of the ideological fence. The right time is now.
Get your tickets now for this all too brief run by visiting https://www.lunastage.org today.