SILENT RESISTANCE

A wartime journey inspired by Marcel Marceau’s resistance
work becomes an overlong and uneven theatrical ride

Marcel Marceau was not only a mime; he was one of the most famous French performers of his time. But he was born Marcel Mangel, to a Jewish family in Strasbourg. His father was a kosher butcher from Poland, and his mother came from present-day Ukraine.

Maddie Corman, Ethan Slater, Max Gordon Moore, and Alex WyseTedra Millan, Max Gordon Moore, Maddie Corman and Ethan Slater

During the German occupation of France, Marcel and his older brother adopted the name Marceau and joined the French Resistance. The first time Marcel used mime was when he was trying to keep Jewish children quiet while he helped them escape to Switzerland.

Ethan Slater, Aaron Serotsky

Marcel on the Train, by Marshall Pailet and Ethan Slater (Boq from the Wicked movies and SpongeBob on Broadway), tells the story of young Marcel taking such a group of children to safety by train. Ethan Slater plays Marcel and Marshall Pailet directs. Such insularity may be why the play is much too long and self-indulgent.

Max Gordon Moore, Alex Wyse, Ethan Slater, Tedra Millan, and Maddie Corman

After an overly extended mime prologue in which Slater proves that he is no Marcel Marceau, the drama begins. Scott Davis has arranged several benches onstage to represent the train. It’s doubtful anyone has ever been on a train that even faintly resembles this set. However, Davis’s arrangement of benches gives the 12-year-old children—Adolphe, Henri, Berthe, and Etienette—plenty of room to romp around.

Tedra Millan and Max Gordon Moore

The children come from an orphanage, but they are dressed as Boy Scouts to fool the Nazis. One must ask how their shorts and berets might fool the Germans, when the adult actors neither look nor act like children.

Aaron Serotsky and Max Gordon Moore

These prodigies make philosophical comments about war and death. They discuss their dreams. When a French collaborator (Aaron Serotsky, in one of many roles) enters their compartment to inspect their baggage, the children make sassy comments. Even more unbelievable, Marcel entertains the Nazi with corny jokes. The lighting and sound tell us this is a suspenseful drama; the dialogue and acting tell us it is a comic adventure.

Tedra Millan and Ethan Slater

One girl’s most pressing concern seems to be where and when she can urinate. We must watch her relieving herself in a toilet made with jackets stuffed in the bottom of a pail. They could have left out the jackets; we hear her tinkling anyway.

Ethan Slater (Marcel) and Maddie Corman Alex Wyse

Flashbacks show Marcel trying to convince his father (Serotsky again) to come along; like so many Jews in similar situations, he refuses. Flashforwards show what will happen to the children when they become adults, but Pailet manages these scenes so clumsily it’s hard to understand exactly what’s happening.

The show ends with another very long pantomime. Slater has not yet fully mastered the art.

Ethan Slater

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photos by Emilio Madrid

Marcel on the Train
Mix and Match Productions
Classic Stage Company
CSC’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 E 13th St.
1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission
ends on March 22, 2026
for tickets, visit CSC

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