Wiesenthal. Acorn Theatre (Off Broadway). By Tom Dugan. Directed by Jenny Sullivan. With Dugan. Running time: 1hr 30mins. No intermission.
Wiesenthal: In brief
Tom Dugan stars in his own solo show about Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who survived the Holocaust and devoted the next four decades to tracking down German war criminals. Jenny Sullivan directs the New York premiere.
Wiesenthal: Theater review by Raven Snook
Theater folk really take the “never forget” mantra seriously: There seems to be a new Holocaust play every month. Thankfully, playwright-performer Tom Dugan’s engaging solo piece transcends dramatized history lesson by capturing the showman’s flair of survivor turned Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (“I always open with a joke,” he says after earning unexpected laughs) while chronicling his life.
Though the setup is hoary (the so-called “Jewish James Bond” addresses his last group of students at Vienna’s Jewish Documentation Center on the day of his retirement), the execution is heartfelt. Even those familiar with Wiesenthal’s work—including helping to capture war criminals such as Eichmann and Stangl—should be moved by his remembrance of the former looking like a bookkeeper, not a monster, at his trial, and a devastating note from an exterminated child pleading, “Never forget me.” True, Dugan avoids criticisms that Wiesenthal exaggerated his exploits, but in a world where Holocaust deniers and ethnic cleansing still exist, his activism is worth memorializing.
THE BOTTOM LINE The scourge of Nazis comes partly back to life.