Hannah Moscovitch’s story is that of the son of a Nazi doctor who deals with the torment of his father’s crimes against humanity. It is one of the most creative, fresh new works by a Canadian playwright in ages. This incredible story comes to Alberta Theatre Projects from October 21st to November 8th.
East of Berlin is told in first person narrative by Rudi, who as a child, went into hiding in Paraguay with his father after World War II. Rudi finds out about his father’s crimes – working in the concentration camps of Auschwitz. After his relationship with his father is destroyed, due to a brief homosexual affair, Rudi goes to Germany where he meets and falls for a Jewish girl named Sarah. What follows is a look at how the sins of the father are revisited upon the son.
Anyone familiar with Calgary’s theatre community, if reading the script, would instantly envision one actor in the role of Rudi – Rylan Wilkie. Fortunately, ATP agrees and the talented actor was cast in the role.
“Funnily enough I was in Toronto last year and East of Berlin was premiering at the Tarragon Theatre. I was staying with my friend Brendan Gall, who was playing Rudi there, and I went to school with Hannah. I saw a dress rehearsal and saw myself in the role. By the time I got back to Calgary and mentioned it to ATP they had already read it, they were on top of it,” recalled Wilkie. The show marks his return to a theatre company he considers family.
”I really enjoy their programming and the artistic choices they make, especially this season being all Canadian contemporary plays. This will be my 7th or 8th show and it feels like family. It was the first place I auditioned out of school and I feel like this is the place I started my career. I feel comfortable within that space. I always love coming back here.”
We caught up with Rylan as he was preparing to go into rehearsals for the show. I asked him what preparation he had taken, mentally, physically, and with research to ready himself for the demanding role.
“[I did] a lot of research into that period. We are all familiar with it but I really went in depth and read the literature. There is so much out there - volumes of stuff. Hannah was great at sending out a list of books she used for research. A lot of it was first person accounts of the Holocaust and Auschwitz. I read a lot about what it was like to be uprooted and taken to these camps to get the horror of it. There was some grotesque stuff the Germans did that was defended as medical research, but it was really just cruel, barbaric medical science. That period was only 70 years ago and it is endlessly fascinating. It is just bizarre to me that this could happen. A lot of the first person accounts of it are like otherworldly nightmare occurrences, and it happened not that long ago really. I think we are just sort of drawn to that pure evil of the Nazi’s and Hitler. The physical and mental preparation will just be the rehearsal process, much like working out, it is getting it into your body and mind.”
While some may initially be intimidated by the subject matter, Moscovitch has infused her story with so much character and heart that it is compelling.
“It is a different take on the holocaust. We always hear the Jewish side of it, and it was very brave of Hannah to show us the German side of it. A lot of people don’t care about the German side, because why would you? You can’t feel sorry for the Nazis and to hear someone tell their side, the instinct is to go ‘who cares they got what they deserved.’ So it will be interesting to try and win over the audience. It is dark material, but Hannah has written some humor as well - it is not just bleak.”
“A lot of these Nazi men lead a bit of a split personality with their lives. They would be at the camp all day shooting Jewish prisoners in the head and then go home and read stories and play with their children. It is really bizarre. To grow up sheltered from it and just find out one day that the reason why you are living in South America is because your father is in hiding because he did these terrible things - I have no idea what that is like. I tried to immerse myself more in the thought of the lies and the betrayal, of being lied to for 17 years.”
Wilkie continued, “Rudi’s biggest thing is he is such a lonely guy, he has so few friends that those few people that he meets like Hermann or Sarah he really grasps onto, and sexually in this play as well. Rudi’s actions and motivations to really divorce himself from his father and his father’s past goes through extremes. Hermann has every right to be pissed off, to be used as a device for revenge, it would really hurt. It is interesting because Hannah pulled it from some research material about a son of a nazi who did end up having an affair with a young gay man and then divorced himself from it. It is very extreme in terms of a way to piss off your father. But at that time and with such a strict German father it is logical for Rudi. It is interesting how he slips into a lot of his father’s lies and deceit. How do you tell somebody something like that, how does that conversation ever begin? And once you tell that one lie it is very hard to take back and spins out of control.”
One of the most anticipated shows of the 2008/09 theatre season, promises to be a must see.
“I just think it is a really unique and fresh story, I think Hannah is going to be a very hot up and coming writer. Her use of dialogue and description is just so fresh it is a treat to work on a show like this, I don’t think it is like anything we have seen in Calgary in a long time. I was just totally sucked in and I hope Calgary feels the same way.”
East of Berlin
October 20th – November 8th 2008
Martha Cohen Theatre
www.atplive.com
