Mark Spina, has done it again! Artistic Director of The Theater Project, and the show’s director, along with Joseph Vitale, Playwright, take us back in time to World War II in Vitale’s play “The Interpreter”. The lived experience of Richard Sonnenfeldt, among the remaining living interpreters from the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi war criminals, inspires this oh-so-timely examination of the Silent Generation and still has deep resonance today. The dialogue includes the casual racism of 80 years ago one usually encounters only in Michener novels. While our grandparents and great grandparents were saving the world in some ways, they used so many daily stereotypes and “-isms” in others. When we get those mordant reminders of what the world was like, we see as one how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cosgrove (Brian Nowak) and his new boss, Colonel Kenneth A. Erickson (Mike Marcou) are in Germany, immediately post World War II, and about to begin administration of the Nuremberg Trials. Erickson has hand-picked his team and is looking to make his military career with this high-profile assignment. Finding an interpreter for the “big fish” war criminal Hermann Goering (David Tillistrand), however, has been very difficult. Ultimately, Erickson settles on Private Richard Rosen (Sam Saravolatz) who was born in the same village as Goering and is equally proficient in English and German. Plus, the shared hometown may spur some spurious connection that will lead Goering to sharing something he might not otherwise do. Yet, Rosen is Jewish. Has Erickson elected to put mortal philosophical enemies together? It is folly to underestimate one’s enemy.
There is magic in the interaction of Tillistrand’s Goering and Saravolatz’ Rosen. The final scene of the first act reminded me of Wild Kingdom, watching a snake mesmerize it’s prey. Scenes in Act II are equally intense, in different ways. Everyone is working to make hay on these trials – Dr. G. H. Gilman (Gary Glor) is the psychologist who is surrounded by rich source material, and whose every thought is around how his book about these men will resound. The interactions of Dr. Otto Stahmer (Yefim Somin) with Rosen and Goering in the scene where the latter first meet is seamless as is how the conversation segues with Rosen and Goering when they are alone from German to English. Lucky Pearso’s lights complement Stephen Sallach’s sets and Barbara Canace’s costumes while James Mezzo’s Sound and Bryan Clarendon’s Projections with Chase Wolff’s haunting videos will live in memory. Be sure to stay for the post-show discussion that is part of every performance at the Oakes Center where the play is being performed. This is an important show for all ages – those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
This show closes August 25, get your tickets NOW and experience this brilliant show. It’s excellent preparation for the upcoming election season. https://www.thetheaterproject.org/summer-season-2024#SUMMERSEASON2024