Mariya’s Irena’s Vow Review

§ December 14th, 2008 § Filed under Irena's Vow

The Undying Spirit of a Bygone Era.

Today’s theater, adorned by extravagant sets, dressed in winding plots of heterogeneous genre, crafted by directors who can only endeavor to produce something unique, can hardly impart us with anything lasting, anything moving. Today’s theatergoer is entertained, but the images, the way the light falls into forgotten crevices on the heroine’s neck, fail to remain in his mind. Dan Gordon had his work cut out for him with Irena’s Vow, a biographical drama now showing at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, whose essence is the remembrance of the past.
The story of Irena Gut Opdyke, recreated beautifully by Tovah Feldshuh, is one of a young Polish girl who had forsaken refuge from the horrors of the Second World War; and took the lives of twelve refugee Jews into her hands.  Irena takes the audience on a journey she has left undisturbed in her memory for decades. The significance of the choices she made and how many lives they affected, strike the audience acutely. On the intangible, long-gone stage of the Holocaust (associated with only a small group of people), Irena’s Vow raises much greater themes of trust, courage, and selflessness, accessible to a wide spectrum of audiences.
The challenge was bringing to life a memory, whose details may be unreliable, with faces dulled by time and conversations that deteriorate to shadows of their original content. Several strong choices were made by Michael Parva (director), which played on this flaw and draw the audience into the experience. A plain set with little dimension and few props brought out the ambiguity of the details a memory can provide.
Ms. Feldshuh has a constant presence on the stage, often filling in the roles and lines of the people whose faces she has forgotten, or saying the words that still resonate loudly in her mind. She is artful at switching roles instantaneously, moving from the part of a Nazi commander to that of a young Polish girl or from the part of an elderly woman to her younger counterpart. Furthermore, Feldshuh’s ability to deliver punch lines throughout the play gave her character greater dimension and brought a needed variety to the overall mood.
A background was provided by projected images, which sometimes completed the scenes and created moving moments (particularly the photograph of a family executed for helping Jews).  Often these images seemed like attempts at compensating for lack of backdrops or felt superfluous to the scene.
Parva excelled at ensuring that the reality of the Holocaust never leaves stage. At least one of the three Jewish characters, Ida Hallar, Lazar Hallar, or Fanka Silberman, is on the fringes of the stage at all times. In this manner, their presence in the villa, in Irena’s mind and at the heart of the story is never forgotten. These three actors could not provide faces and spirits to all the other men and women Irena’s choices had affected. This sacrifice allowed the audience to develop a level of intimacy with these characters, which was absolutely necessary for them to comprehend the gravity of Irena’s decisions.
If not for the heroine’s inspirational actions, Irena’s Vow must be seen for the array of intimate moments that served to recreate this unfathomable experience to the 21st century audience. We are the last generation to hear first-hand accounts of the Holocaust, but hopefully we will not be the last to learn of genuine courage in the face of hell.