14-Jun / THEATER AACHEN / 3 COMMENTS

Last Saturday I saw my first play in German. That’s one of the great things of working in a theater, if you want, you can get immersed in the happenings of such a place. Two members of our Fiddler cast were playing in Die Radikalisierung Bradley Manning, and I went to check them out. After only 2 weeks rehearsing in Germany, I didn’t expect to be able to follow the goings- on up on stage as much as I did, but here and there one is reminded that the brain is a wonderful and mysterious thing.

 

Last Saturday was also the eve of the Shavuot holiday, and even though I haven’t celebrated it for the past 8 years, being in Germany and being a part of Anatevka has its effects on me, and I was flushed with home sickness. I had high hopes that focusing on the German will help take my mind off feeling like one of Peter Pan’s lost boys, but to my delight, I was both surprised and thrilled, sitting at the edge of my seat for most of the play- moved by the effectiveness of everyone on stage. It was a wonderful hour and a half, that benefitted greatly from perfect timing, great use of a brilliant set, and fantastic casting, if one can say that time spent on such a theme can be wonderful.

 

More than anything, it seemed like a tour de force of the actor that played Bradley Manning. Soaked in sweat for most of the play- never stopping for a single moment, he was able to intimate the character’s blanket of isolation and stress to every single member of the audience. So much so, that in the few moments of silence or stand still, you could hear the bodies of the public unwind.

 

Sitting in the small, dark hall, on the eve of Shavuot, watching the play unfold, I was constantly reminded of home. Of my own personal militaristic community, where acts of humanity are often misunderstood as acts of great betrayal.