A TRIUMPHANT SAGA OF
A VIENNESE FAMILY
Shakespeare Theatre Company, in association with Huntington in Boston, is presenting at Harman Hall an epic, haunting play about loss and survival. Grandiose in scale and complete with 23 actors who portray multiple characters, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt is incredibly moving in that it speaks of unimaginable loss. Concerning an Austrian Jewish family in a timeline that spans from 1899 to 1955, the two hour, forty minute production explores the motif of memory on many levels. It calls into question suppressed memories, false memories, shared family memories, and, most importantly, historical memory.
First, the play explores Stoppard’s own real-life memory. Leopoldstadt is somewhat autobiographical and serves as the playwright’s recollection of an important, but previously unknown, part of his life.
The cast of Leopoldstadt. Brenda Meaney and Rachel Felstein in front.
Stoppard was born to a Jewish family, but he didn’t realize it until he was in his 50s. It wasn’t until 1993 that Stoppard learned from a Czech relative that he had Jewish grandparents on both sides who had died, along with three of his aunts, in a concentration camp. His family was able to hide the fact they were Jewish because when the Nazis invaded the Czech Republic in 1941, his family fled and eventually settled in England. His father died and his mother remarried Kenneth Stoppard, and Tomáš Sträussler became Tom Stoppard. This play serves to remember Stoppard’s true heritage and features a character that Stoppard modeled on himself.
Mishka Yarovoy, Nael Nacer, Brenda Meaney
Leopoldstadt also serves to teach us about historical memory. When learning about the Holocaust, Jews are repeatedly warned to “Never forget.” Leopoldstadt is a monumental reminder of why this is so.
Directed by Carey Perloff, the play, which follows an extended Jewish family from prominence through progressing antisemitism and ruin, is a cautionary tale to never forget or ignore the past. Most of the play’s family stayed in Austria, ignoring the rising prejudice of the Jews, and were almost all eventually extinguished by the Holocaust.
The production opens in a grand European house, beautifully designed by Ken MacDonald. It is 1899 in Vienna. Members of the Merz and Jakobovicz family are finely dressed, gathering for Christmas. Hermann (Nael Nacer) has converted to Christianity and has married a Christian woman, Gretl (Brenda Meaney). They are raising their son, Jacob (Harrison Morford) in an interfaith household.
Holden King-Farbstein, Joshua Chessin-Yudin, Quinn Murphy, Firdous Bamji
Hermann argues with his brother-in-law, Ludwig (Firdous Bamji), that in Vienna, they can forget the antisemitism of the past. They can assimilate. Hermann goes to country clubs, where he claims that he is accepted. Ludwig, who has remained Jewish, argues that they will never be accepted. Ludwig’s claims are proven correct when an argument ensues between a non-Jewish cavalry officer, Fritz, and Hermann, in which Fritz makes many antisemitic remarks and reveals that Hermann’s wife had an affair with him. During this fight, Fritz mentions the rise of the Nationalist party, hinting at the future atrocities that will take place and showing that antisemitism was always there, but many Jewish people forgot it, thinking they could blend into Vienna culturally.
The Cast
The play jumps ahead in time, showing backdrops of World War I, courtesy of Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel and Projection Designer Yuki Izumihara. Hermann and Gretl’s son, Jacob, is injured and depressed. The extended family still gathers together, but their house is clearly less grand than the one they previously lived in 1899. The characters discuss their economic decline, but some of the family members think they are still lucky and better off than many. Before the first act ends, the play jumps ahead again, showing projected backdrops of Hitler’s rise to power as his troops march through Vienna.
The Cast
It is now 1938, and many of the main Jewish characters are worried about the rise of antisemitism. A Christian man from England named Percy, who is engaged to Hermann’s niece, Nellie, is urging the extended family to leave with him to England. Grandma Jakobovicz argues that the Jews have lived through antisemitism and ghettos in the past and that it will just be more of the same. She argues that the Jewish people will get through this new wave of antisemitism and rise up again as they always have.
Brenda Meaney, Samuel Adams
On a personal level, Gretl’s memory has faded; she is living in a nursing home with dementia. Gretl tries to apologize to Hanna, but she can’t remember why. The audience remembers that Gretl is apologizing for stealing Fritz from Hanna. Meanwhile, Hermann has a false memory about staging the affair between Gretl and Fritz, claiming that Jacob is Fritz’s son so that Jacob would be protected. The audience knows this is a lie because Jacob was the character who placed the Star of David on top of the Christmas tree in 1899. Before the characters can decide whether to follow Percy to England, a Gestapo officer arrives to take them away. During their encounter with the Gestapo officer, Nellie’s son, Leo, drops a ceramic cup, slicing his hand open. This will be important later when issues of memory are emphasized in the final scene.
The cast
The play jumps ahead to 1955, and the only members of the extended Jewish family who remain alive are Leo, his cousin Nathan, and their aunt Rosa. Leo can’t remember anything about his time in Vienna; his mom managed to get him away to England, away from the concentration camps, and he has forgotten his extended family and his Jewish life in Vienna. He has suppressed his memories of Vienna. Finally, Leo remembers what caused the scar on his hand, the night when the Gestapo officer insisted he pick up the broken shards of the ceramic cup that he dropped. Leo is the character based on Stoppard.
Leopoldstadt begs the question: do we learn from the past or do we let it just keep repeating? Our collective future will tell.
photos by Liza Voll
Leopoldstadt
Shakespeare Theatre Company
co-production with Huntington Theatre Company in Boston
Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW in Washington, DC
ends on December 29, 2024
for tickets, call 202.547.1122 or visit STC
