Pre-World War II Germany was a caldron of divergent political philosophies and social unrest. Attempting to find a national identity following its defeat in the First World War, The German people became immersed in ideologies of every sort. Not surprisingly, the one which would won out would be the one that promised singularity of purpose and purity if ethnic race.
"Race" is the season-opening presentation of the University if Detroit Mercy's Theatre Company. It is a drama if those critical days when the Nazi regime began its ascent to absolute power. And no political bade was as important towards that becoming reality than capturing the hearts and minds of the German youth.
Karlanner (Andrew Parker), Tessow (Timothy McKernan), Sieglemann (Dax Anderson) and Rosloh (Justin Caesar) are students at a German University. As their lives begin to change in the evolving political climate, we begin to see the enormous pressures playing on every coming-of-age German male.
The different paths these characters take become representative if the lives of many German men. Some would accept unequivocally the power behind the Nazi state and go on to positions of leadership. Others would follow the party complacently, out of fear of retribution. A few others would come to see the evil at the core of a "master race" and its final solution, and rebel.
And finally, there is the Jew himself, an astonished victim as yes unable to comprehend the atrocities to come. The play's political intrigue is bolstered by the romantic situation between Karlanner and a Jewish girl, Helene (Amanda Lisa Stein).
"Race" was written by German writer Ferdinand Bruckner shortly after the events of 1933 that is supposed took place. The version being presented is an English adaptation by Barry Edelstein.
The Theatre Company's Production, directed by Yolanda Fleischer, plays on the mood of fear and unrest present at the time. The actors perform against a backdrop of stark blackness and white images, many in the style of woodcuts, others reminiscent of the grotesqueries of German artist George Grosz. The illustrations bespeak if imminent terror. Jackbooted soldiers, shards of glass, flashlights in the night, and Nazi officers in aberrant forms.
Fine performances are given by Dax Anderson in the role if the Jew Sieglemann and Timothy McKernan as Tessow, who comes to learn that personal friendship often must override allegiance to the party. David Regal, Theatre Company stalwart and Detroit stage icon, makes an appearance as industrialist and "good" Jew, A. Marx.
"Race" plays through a tense and interesting first half. Act II, However, bogs down in a series if speeches that do little to advance the plot but much that passes for propaganda. In art, as in life, story will often take you farther than ideology.
Performances of "Race" continue through October 21. Call the Theatre Company box office at (313) 993-6461 for tickets and information.