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REVIEWS
Theater review A moving
look at friendship gone wrong
Monday, April 23, 2007 - RICHARD
WATTENBERG
For its first full production, Readers Theatre Repertory
(which, as the name suggests, usually explores
interesting texts without formally staging them) is
offering a movingly performed adaptation of native
Portlander Kressmann Taylor's prescient 1938 novella
"Address Unknown."
This taut little work consists of the letters that art
dealers and business partners Max Eisenstein, a German
Jew living in San Francisco, and Martin Schulse, a
German gentile who has recently returned to Munich from
the United States, exchange during the early 1930s.
These letters capture the growing alienation that the
two one-time friends experience as Schulse is swept up
in the patriotic frenzy accompanying Hitler's rise to
power. Our imagination fills in transitions between them
and fleshes out the complex human beings engaged in this
brutal drama of betrayal and vengeance.
In performance, however, we view more than the written
documents, the residue of the past -- we witness human
beings in time. Director Mary McDonald-Lewis does a fine
job bringing the worlds of these two characters
together, even though the format means character
development can seem rushed.
Presenting Martin as a stolid, self-absorbed
social-climber, Tobias Andersen neatly outlines the arc
of his development from complacent, proud entrepreneur
to committed Nazi Party member to broken-down failure.
Michael Mendelson's Max is a more high-strung character.
His pained response to his friend's transformation, his
anxieties over his sister's well-being and his gruesome
celebratory dance when learning of Martin's demise
resonate with feeling -- that sometimes seems
overcooked.
Still, it makes for a powerful theater piece. No simple
indictment of Nazi cruelty, "Address Unknown" reminds us
how vulnerable we all are to circumstances and
self-interest.
Theater Review: 'Address
Unknown'
Weekend!Arts
BY ERIC BARTELS
The Portland Tribune, Apr 27, 2007
Actors Michael Mendelson and Tobias Andersen command
attention in “Address Unknown,” a well-crafted story of
German expatriates whose friendship is challenged when
one returns to the fatherland in time for the rise of
the prewar Nazi machine.
But another level of stillness grips the Winningstad
Theatre when a radio is switched on midway through the
production and Adolf Hitler is heard rousing passions at
a party rally.
Later, in the post-show talkback, there is a possible
explanation. Several audience members identify
themselves as Holocaust survivors, telling personal
stories of childhoods in Germany, Poland and the
Netherlands.
They also speak of having been thoroughly engaged by
Frank Dunlop’s adaptation of Portland author Kathrine
Kressmann Taylor’s 1938 novel, citing the performances
of Andersen as a well-to-do landholder intoxicated by
the simple logic and growing momentum of Hitler’s
designs, and Mendelson as a San Francisco art dealer who
looks on with mounting horror.
Readers Theatre Repertory is to be credited for the
production, but perhaps further lauded for its vision,
with the talkbacks following each performance.
Eliciting contributions from the audience, and its
authentic witnesses to history, makes for a stirring
package of stagecraft and community engagement, one that
tackles timeless questions about morality and duty.
– Eric Bartels
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ARTICLES
Just Out Article
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Forsaking Friendship 4/20/07 - Page 28 pdf file
1.7mb
Address Unknown
[NEW REVIEW] Readers Theatre Repertory threads a
surprising amount of grace and subtlety into this short
play about the Holocaust. Frank Dunlop has written a
lean but powerful adaptation, while Michael Mendelson
and Tobias Andersen provide sharp performances as old
friends who run an art dealership. Max, a Jew, manages a
gallery in San Francisco while Martin, a German,
supplies the art from his estate in Munich. The year is
1932. Their friendship does not last for much longer.
With little bombast or grandiosity, Address Unknown
approaches its difficult subject through the narrow
sliver of experience—the friendship of two men—to convey
an important message about individual responsibility and
the mechanics of power. STACY RIGER. Readers Theatre
Repertory at Brunish Hall, 1111 SW Broadway,
1-800-992-TIXX. 11 am Wednesday, 11 am and 7 pm
Thursday, 8 pm Friday-Saturday, 2 and 7 pm Sunday.
Closes April 29. $11.50-$23.50+.
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AUDIENCE RESPONSES
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Press inquiries:
mary@marymac.com
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A production of Reader's Theatre
Repertory
Produced in conjunction with Oregon
Holocaust Resource Center
A project of Mt. Hood
Repertory Theatre Company |
