Way To Heaven: A Theatrical Review
There are very few shows that I recommend all of my readers to experience, this is one of them. We are bound to repeat the past if we do not force ourselves to remember it. (Yes, I changed the quote.) In this powerful production, the audience is brought into the truth of deception like none I have encountered in a good deal of time, and before the show is over, if you’re a normal human being, you will be dumb-founded and or in tears – if not both.
Way To Heaven by Juan Mayorga, is a production about a German run Jewish prison propaganda camp. It discusses in clear detail the scripts and actions that had to be learned by the Jewish inhabitants for portrayal of how well they were being treated by the Nazi’s when outside help and or press came to visit. Thus creating a total lie for the world to believe that the Germans were not in fact annihilating an entire race of people, simply because of who they were.
This powerful production comes with a self-guided tour of the camp that can be experienced prior to the opening of the show by every audience member. It also comes with a real life clip from the German propaganda film that Hitler himself mandated be made in just such a camp. The truth is that throughout the entire time that these people were living in the camps, they still had to hear the trains coming every night, see the smoke in the sky from the burning of live individuals, and yet somehow pretend to be happy – at least for all outsiders who visited the encampment. Simply put, there were more than enough people to replace those that the Germans were convinced were not playing their parts well enough. Thus, it was either portray the part, or walk the road up to the infirmary, which meant certain death.
It is this very road for which the production is named. The Himmelwegv (German for Way To Heaven), was the last steps that would ever be taken by the Jews who would not perform in the manner that the Germans felt most befitting the deception they wanted the world to buy. Sadly, there are still those in this world who are unwilling to acknowledge the truths about the Nazi Holocaust. This production is powerful because it does not specifically deal with Hitler, but with Hitler’s wishes, and those who carried them out. It is more powerful still because it opens the door to understanding the lives of those who actually had to live this horrific fact, the Jews. May We NEVER forget!
Exceptionally directed and produced by Ron Sossi, with a simple yet powerful set designed by Frederica Nascimento, and starring Norbert Weisser as the Commandant and Bruce Katzman as Gershom Gottfried, this production is literally spell-bounding. A wonderful cast of individuals, ranging from child to adult, fill out this production with a mind numbing honesty that sends chills of the spine of all who see it. This simply is a production that we all need in a world like the one we all live in today.
Way To Heaven plays Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8PM and Sundays at 2PM through December 18, 2011 at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. They are located at 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd in Los Angeles, CA 90025-5621, and you can make your reservations by calling 310-477-2055, or by logging onto the web at www.odysseytheatre.com. Make sure to ask about the special student and senior ticket prices, as well as the “pay what you can” production times, and the few dates that their normal performance schedule varies.
Enjoy!
Randall Gray
The California Theatre Critic
Yahoo On-line