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Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/31/2016
7:00 PM
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December 1944, Budapest, where Nazi bigwig Adolf Eichmann is busy dispatching to Auschwitz the last remaining large Jewish population in occupied Europe. Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden’s “Angel of Mercy,” invites Eichmann to dinner at the Swedish legation. (Many people believe such a dinner, however improbable, actually took place.) Wallenberg’s goal in the drama: to get the S.S. commander to abandon his plan to empty residents of the Budapest ghetto onto the Auschwitz-bound trains. That’s a daring move by the suave Swede, a faux diplomat and maybe a U.S. spy, and he plays it for maximum impact—as well as enjoyment. He invites a Jewish mystery guest, who reveals an emotionally and morally agonizing deal with the S.S., and also tangles with the Eichmann’s wine-swilling, outspoken aide. In the end, it is Wallenberg’s own aide, a young Hungarian, who provides an impulsive, shocking climax to the evening’s events. En route, the dialogue crackles with lively, often bitterly humorous exchanges between the principals and between both of them and Eichmann’s aide. Besides making for lively theater, the exchanges between the principals illuminate the motivations, compulsions, and fears embedded in a recent, vital chunk of human history–and personified by two of its most memorable figures.
Admission to this show is free – first-come basis.
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