Poles, Jews and 'Our Class' (3rd comment)

The sorrow and the pity— In Poland, and Philadelphia too

Our Class, which concerns a World War II atrocity committed by Polish Catholics against their Jewish neighbors, is currently raising questions all over Poland, as well it should. But the Polish church has ignored it— and so, apparently, have my fellow Polish-American Philadelphians.

Merilyn Jackson

Nov 08, 2011 · Articles · 8 minute read

"The Whipping Man' at the Arden

Free, black, 21— and kosher too

The Whipping Man concerns the tribulations of a former Confederate soldier trying to run a proper Jewish household with two of his ex-slaves. Playwright Matthew Lopez apparently hopes you'll be too busy gasping at his ironies to notice the holes in his plot.

Jackie Schifalacqua

Nov 07, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Lantern Theater's "New Jerusalem' (3rd review)

Spinoza confronts a 21st-Century jury

In David Ives's play, Baruch Spinoza's very abstract notions test a 17th-Century congregation's tolerance for new ideas, not to mention age-old ideals. But the Lantern Theater production makes it clear that this 21st-Century audience is being tested as well.

Marshall A. Ledger

Nov 05, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Our Class' at the Wilma (2nd review)

Once upon a time in Poland: Truth, lies and history

Tadeusz Slobodzaniek's Our Class recounts the 1941 massacre of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors, and the subsequent cover-up that blamed it on the Nazis. That the Nazis had willing collaborators in their extermination of the Jews isn't news; more interesting than the moral disintegration that led to the massacre is the subsequent history of rationalization and denial, which continues to the present day.

Robert Zaller

Nov 01, 2011 · Articles · 8 minute read

Graham's "Philly Fan' at People's Light

They booed Santa Claus. Or did they?

Bruce Graham's ranting Philly Fan, updated to reflect his city's latest sports tragedies, is sort of like a sports event where the home team always wins.

Bill Murphy

Nov 01, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

'Our Class' at the Wilma (1st review)

Where were you in the war, classmate?

In the devastating Our Class, the Polish Catholic playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek plumbs a monstrous (and true) subject: The lives of ten members of a school class in a Polish town whose Jews were incinerated en masse by their Catholic neighbors.

Steve Cohen

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

John Logan's "Red' at Suzanne Roberts (2nd review)

The agony and the agony

John Logan's Red dramatizes the ageless tension between art and commerce. Yet not every artist was as angry and even paranoiac as Mark Rothko.

Steve Cohen

Oct 23, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

EgoPo’ “Diary of Anne Frank”

Young girl? No, young woman

This adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank is different from— and better than— the 1955 version you grew up with. Among other things, it's less squeamish about Anne's adolescent awkwardness and her family's Jewishness.

Steve Cohen

Oct 23, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

The human Dr. King: Katori Hall's "The Mountaintop'

Martin Luther King: Myth vs. man

This startling, unconventional and inspiring play by a young African-American playwright takes us to the mountaintop (Martin Luther King's metaphor) of American dreams and expectations by way of an unexpected, uplifting route.

Carol Rocamora

Oct 23, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

John Logan's "Red' at Suzanne Roberts (1st review)

Rothko's complaint, or: Where are the grown-ups?

What's a brilliant Abstract Expressionist like Mark Rothko to do in an art world overrun by Philistines and pop culture? John Logan's Red, for all its dramatic shortcomings, provides rich and ample food for thought about the role of the artist in society.

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 23, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read