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THE ACTION AGAINST SOL SCHUMANN Jeffrey Sweet’s emotionally gripping and profoundly insightful play
raises some very interesting ethical questions about how society should deal
with evil. The characters play out their private dramas against a backdrop of
political and social events. The play also presents complex moral dilemmas for
its characters, survivors of Nazi Germany and their offspring, politicians,
lawyers and society at large, to ponder in our increasingly violent modern
world. “Sol Schumann,” deals with Holocaust history as it affects the next
generation. Sol, the father, a quiet,
deeply observant Jew is suddenly accused of having been a brutal kapo in a German labor camp. As facts and alleged facts
surface, the two sons, one a human activist who reacts strongly to anti-Semitic
practices, past and present, and the second son, an assimilated Jew with a
gentile wife, are forced to confront the fact about their father’s past. Through
dramatic unraveling of the father’s past, the sons are faced with the questions
of whether their father was a decent man who was forced to do the Nazis’
bidding or whether he actually turned on his fellow Jews with unbridled
hostility. Can the sons forgive their father for his duplicitous life? At the
same time, more universal questions are posed: Will the pursuit of Sol Schumann
and others like him increase anti-Semitism? Is self-preservation a defense for
one’s unwilling participation in evil? Does unwillingness become transformed into
full complicity in the perpetration of evil? The play is loosely based on the The play takes the audience on an emotional and intellectual journey into
the past, which erupts into the present, and provides thought for the future. The Action Against
Sol Schumann will be
presented by the Jerusalem English Speaking Theatre (JEST), on June 8, 12, and 15, 2006, at 8PM and on June 14 at 5PM and 8:30PM. All shows will be at the Hirsch Theatre, Mercaz Shimshon in Beit Shmuel, Jerusalem. Individual regular ticket price: 70 NIS. Special ticket price for groups over 10 - NIS 55 -- call JEST at 02-6420908 for details For further information, call JEST at 02-642-0908
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