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Irena’s Vow

§ December 16th, 2008 § Filed under Capsule Reviews, Irena's Vow § Tagged § No Comments

Boris Kalendariov

The Power of a Vow

Sometimes the strength and determination of one person’s vow can save the lives of others. This is especially evident in “Irena’s Vow”, a new play by Dan Gordon at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. “Irena’s Vow”, based on a true story, takes us back to German occupied western Poland in the 1940s. Tovah Feldshuh plays as Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish woman who took upon herself and managed to hide twelve Jewish men and women in the villa of a Nazi Major.

Irena was born into a Catholic family in Central Poland. During her teenage years she studied nursing, this, however, came to a halt when she joined the resistance as Germany invaded Poland. Captured by the Russians she was beaten and raped. She successfully escaped from the hands of the Russians only to be captured later by the Germans forces, who forced her to work in a munitions plant. Things changed when Irena’s duties were shifted to oversee the laundry and kitchen services due to the arrangements of Major Eduard Regemer. There she supervised eleven Jewish men and women.

One day while working in the kitchen Irena overheard that the Jews she supervises would be eliminated. After witnessing a horrifying event in the Jewish Ghetto, Irena makes a vow; if she ever has the chance to save a life, she will. Catching the attention of Major Regemer, she was assigned to be his housekeeper. With this in mind and the risks that came along with it she brilliantly crafted a plan to hide the Jews in his cellar.

Ms. Feldshuh’s high caliber performance was greatly portrayed in this play as her commanding role captivated the audience and her close calls with the angel of death kept us in suspense. Especially when old man Major Regemer, played by Thomas Ryan, found out that she deceived him and she becomes his mistress to silence him. Michael Parva does his job in beautifully maneuvering Ms. Feldshuh and her nine convincing cast members in delivering a stellar performance.

From beginning to end “Irena’s Vow” masterfully does its job and portrays its message. We are the last generation to witness and hear the atrocities that occurred not so long ago. With people denying the existence of the Holocaust and the last survivors dying it is our duty to implant the truths in our minds and retell the stories for decades to come. Like Irena, we have to make a vow; a vow to promise that we have to let our generation know of what happened and to never let it occur again. Bravo! Irena for this lesson and thank you.

Dong Hyeok Lee - Irena’s Vow revision

§ December 15th, 2008 § Filed under Assignments, Capsule Reviews, Irena's Vow § No Comments

Irena’s Vow, Giving Us a Powerful Message from the Past

 

When was the last time you risked your own life for people that were almost complete strangers? This is not common among regular people like us because our lives are so important to us. However, to some warm-hearted people during the Holocaust, this was the only choice that they had for saving innocent Jews. Irena’s Vow, starring Tovah Feldshuh, is a story about a young woman named Irena Gut Opdyke who made it her own responsibility to save twelve Jews from being captured and sent to death camps. Irena had gone through many troubles trying to save these Jews. She had to face being raped, becoming the Nazi Major’s mistress, and even being humiliated by her own people of Poland just to help these people from being captured. She was basically playing the role of God to them because through her choices, these Jews were either going to live or die. This play is based on true memoirs of Irena and shows how courageous Irena was being in trying to save innocent people that did not deserve to die.

Irena’s Vow is a new play by Dan Gordon, directed by Michael Parva, being shown through November 2nd in the Baruch Performing Arts Center. The playwright Dan Gordon is considered to be a “master storyteller” in which he can create incredible relationships between the characters and the actors. Before writing this play, he contributed to many movies in which he helped the actors get familiar with their characters. Some of his works were Denzel Washington’s character of Rubin Carter in The Hurricane, Kevin Costner’s role in Wyatt Earp, and Kevin Bacon’s character of Henry Young in Murder in the First. The director Michael Parva, has an extraordinary background as well. Being the Artistic/Producing Director of The Directors Company, he developed numerous new plays and musicals. Some of his works are Bad Girls by Joyce Carol Oates, Kilt, featuring Tovah Feldshuh, Good Will, and more. He has worked with some of the most exceptional playwrights, including Dan Gordon’s Murder in the First, before working together for Irena’s Vow.

Irena’s Vow is a thrilling play and Tovah Feldshuh proves why she is the winner of four Tony nominations, four Drama Desk Awards, and more. Through her comedic acting and at times being very serious that her words go straight to your heart. The reality of this play was mostly because of the level of authenticity Tovah was able to express through her acting. She has proven her acting abilities in works such as Golda’s Balcony, which was sold out in San Francisco and Los Angeles in eight straight weeks. Other actors include Thomas Ryan, who played the Nazi Major Rugemer, and Steven Hauck, who played Schultz. These two actors have incredible resumes in their acting careers. All ten of these actors and actresses have great backgrounds with their acting.

I thought that overall Irena’s Vow was very well done. In the beginning, it was a little slow and boring, but as the plot went on, and as scenes were getting more intense, I could not keep my eyes off the stage. I was at the edge of my seat hoping that the Nazis would not capture these Jews. Given that it was a very small stage, it was like watching a movie with the great cast. I think that these actors did a very fine job in bringing their characters to life, especially Tovah’s role as Irena. This production does a good job in sending out the message to people that we should not forget that the Holocaust had occurred. Irena explains to us in the end of the play that if a day comes when people forget about the Holocaust, that the same thing might reoccur. I recommend this powerful play to all readers, in remembrance of the death of millions of innocent Jews in the Holocaust. 

Andrey Grebenetsky-Irena’s Vow Review (with Revision)

§ December 15th, 2008 § Filed under Capsule Reviews, Irena's Vow § No Comments

Irena’s Vows Get Powerfully Renewed

            There are many people in this world who believe the Holocaust of World War II didn’t happen.  It is expected that a college be a place where ignorance is squashed and this time, the education is delivered in the form of theatre.  Enter the new play Irena’s Vow currently being performed in the Baruch Performing Arts Center.  Written by master storyteller Dan Gordon and directed by Michael Parva, the Artistic/Producing Director of the Director’s Company, Irena’s Vow sets out to remind us of the horrors of Hitler’s regime.

             Four time Tony Award best actress nominee Tovah Feldshuh, who’s resume is the longest I have ever seen in a playbill, confidently takes up the role of Irena Gut Opdyke, the Polish, Catholic heroine who risked her life to preserve the lives of thirteen Jewish people from becoming victims of genocide.  A tall task, leading what is for the most part a one woman show, Feldshuh is directly involved in every single scene of the ninety-minute production as she chronicles the early and later life of deeply missed Irena Gut Opdyke, who passed away in 2003. 

            A veteran of the Holocaust, Gut-Opdyke began telling her story in schools during the early 1980’s with the goal of reminding America’s youth of the evils humans are capable of committing.  The production replicates the exhilarating experience of Opdyke’s outstanding storytelling, as Feldshuh begins by addressing the audience as her children in a well-trained Eastern European accent.             

            This is where the subtlety, creativity, and originality of the play are in full view.  Even though the setting may change from a classroom in America, to war stricken Poland, to Jerusalem, the set remains the same.  Instead, the settings as well as events are progressed with a projection on the wall behind the set, just like Gut Opdyke did it.  The projections and remarkable narration allow the audience’s imaginations to run free, drawing them in to every word Feldshuh utters. 

            The performance did have a minor noticeable flaw.  Feldshuh’s and the supporting actors’ accents were excellent and would have provided a surreal authenticity to the production, but failed to deliver.  The presence of the accents seemed to come and go with the scenes.  Otherwise, the story is as believable as night and day. 

The seriousness of the scene was sometimes interrupted with Opdyke’s sarcastic jokes, reminding the audience that they were students in a classroom.  Feldshuh also made use of loud foot stomps throughout the play to replicate the marching of German soldiers, compelling everyone’s attention towards the class, just like a teacher in any class.

            Only, this was one of the most captivating classes one could attend.  Just like people are forgetting about the tragedy of September 11, 2001, theatergoers will never forget the Holocaust.  This reviewer proudly gives Irena’s Vow a four and a half minute standing ovation.     

            A not-for-profit organization, the award winning Director’s Company is seen as the theatrical equivalent of an independent film company and is known for world-class theatre in the form of The Milliner, Murder in the First, Bad Girls, Kilt, and The Passion of Frida.

Daniel’s Irena’s Vow

§ December 15th, 2008 § Filed under Irena's Vow § No Comments

Irena’s Vow was a play of humanity, a play that depicted the true wonders of the human heart. Tovah Feldshuh brought to life Irene, a Polish woman who not only fought against the German regime, but also an instinct of personal survival. Irene’s Vow was a play of tragedy and happiness, a play of despair and hope, but most importantly a continuing tradition of spoken truth, knowledge and heritage.
Tovah Feldshuh depicted a woman in the epicenter of the Holocaust; she was with neither past nor future but with undiscovered principled heroism nonetheless. Through luck and raw goodness Irena was able to save the lives of a dozen Jews.  A natural leading lady Tovah Feldshuh enveloped her previous experience as the former Prime Minister, Golda Meir, to complement the rigid internal determination of Irene. Irene went from a worker at a Nazi estate, to a mistress of a celebrated Nazi official, Major Rugemer played by Thomas Ryan. Irena’s Vow was a look into the many different battles of the Holocaust, battles that ranged from birth of children to life beneath porches. These many different hardships intertwined to create the struggle within Irene, a woman plagued with uncurbed kindness and a self-destructive promise – to save a life. Such a promise leads a way to many events that could not only destroy one, but also all those that surround.
Tovah constructed a character that condensed all the virtues of humanity into a gleaming display of courage. It is no easy task to do all aspects of this touchy subject, but because of Dan Gordon’s and Michael Parva’s direction nothing but an objective blunt message was sent. A want for contemporary understanding of the weight of the Holocaust was clearly visible and a political theme was also quite explicit. Through a visibly detailed and dedicated performance the work of Dan Gordon came together to be a serious tribute to a Holocaust heroine along with a true grave comment on current adversaries of the free and humane world.

Mariya’s Irena’s Vow Review

§ December 14th, 2008 § Filed under Irena's Vow § No Comments

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.

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