A new play about 1930s Germany, just before the Nazi party took control of Germany, draws chilling parallels to modern day politics.
“Weimar,” presented by the Crowded Kitchen Players through Oct. 18 at Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem, welcomes the audience to a festive New Year’s Eve party in Berlin in 1932, shortly before Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
“Weimar” is the latest original play from Ara Barlieb, the founder of Crowded Kitchen Players
.
In Act 1, Annaliese Bergmann, played with thoughtful conviction by Trish Cipoletti, is hosting the party and welcomes her guests one by one. A surprise guest is a young American played with brash self assurance by Colin Core, who claims he has crashed the party to get information about Berlin’s illicit Kaberett scene. Core’s portrays the callous American with a jovial demeanor that may hide something more sinister.
The other guests are an assortment of Germans with differing experiences and viewpoints on the current state of Germany.
Cipoletti’s Bergman initially begs her guests to avoid any discussion of politics and in particular Hitler.
However, small groups of guests begin talking among themselves about what had happened to Germany since the Great War.
Nathan C. Kuhns plays the Jewish Herr Goldwasser with an understandable amount of trepidation as the guests’ discussions turn to the scapegoating of Democratic socialists, communist and Jews, whom many blame for the country’s economic woes following the 1929 Great Depression.
Denise Shelton is unflappable and dogged as Elisabeth Forster, who is a supporter of Hitler, and decries the Treaty of Versailles signed by the Weimar Republic as weakening Germany by restricting its army. Shelton’s Forster is the sister of the late Friederich Nietzsche, and the keeper of the Nietzsche Archives, in which Hitler has shown an interest.
Nick Lopez’s Heinrich Schumacher is an affable social chameleon whose political beliefs are not quite clear.
Peggy Mulligan, Pamela Wallace and Jennifer DiSante are all memorable as a trio of left-leaning widows, who slowly let their true feelings show, while DiSante’s Vera playfully flirts with the American.
Magnus Lawlor is notable as Herr Reimenschneider, whose own concerns fuel their outspoken criticisms, while Dave Polgar’s blustery Herr Kistenmacher turns to alcohol. Sharon Ferry demonstrates her faded grand dame Magdalena still has strong opinions.
While the first act is a bit chaotic with all the guests’ chatter, it all coalesces in the second act, when Cipoletti’s Bergman breaks her own rule and reveals that she had seen Hitler at a rally. Cipoletti infuses Bergman with a reluctant awe as she describes the electric atmosphere with passionate supporters jamming the halls and lines of committed youth. Shelton’s Forster eagerly joins in and they both suggest Hilter could be the strong leader that could restore Germany’s former greatness.
Alexandra Racines plays Anna, a character who is present but doesn’t speak until late in the second act when she reveals in a powerful monologue that she had been placed in an abusive institution as a child because she was “slow.” There, she realized the children were slowly being poisoned to eliminate those who were inferior.
Barlieb, who directs, balances the dark reality with the frivolity of a party, and makes the audience ponder how the same mistakes can be made all over again.
Danny Black sat in as the cocktail pianist to the sounds of Charlie Barnett’s original music, while
Richard Hoover’s attractive set conveyed a faded elegance.
Tickets are $20.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17; and 2 p.m. Oct. 4, 11 and 18.
For information, call 610-704-6974, or got to www.ckplayers.com/.