Leopoldstadt is Compelling and Complicated with a Perfect Cast to Showcase Tom Stoppard’s Award-Winning Drama
Leopoldstadt
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Jordan Wright
December 8, 2024
Samuel Adams and Brenda Meaney in Leopoldstadt. (Photo/Teresa Castracane, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company)
To know where playwright Tom Stoppard’s drama is going, you’ll need to start with the meaning of Leopoldstadt. It was a shtetl where Jews from all walks of life were forced to live – a walled off ghetto with no escape and a life of unimaginable deprivation.
Set in the European cultural center of Vienna in 1899 where Mahler, Freud, Wittgenstein and other great Jewish minds were highly revered, we are introduced to members of a large haute bourgeois Austrian family. They are cultured and fashionable leading a charmed life – highly educated, completely assimilated into the greater society of the Viennese, and intermarried within the Jewish and Christian religions. Not unusual at the time, these interfaith families enjoyed meaningful positions in high society and academia where they were esteemed for their scholarly contributions.
The cast of Leopoldstadt. (Photo/Teresa Castracane, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company)
Their life appears to be a series of dinners and family rituals where they celebrate both Christmas and Hannukah and a hilarious scene that complicates decisions of an upcoming bris. It is a close-knit family filled with children, young singles and married couples where Grandma Emilia presides over these light-hearted gatherings. Ken MacDonald’s set design reflects the family’s well-established social achievements with a grand interior space reflective of the Art Nouveau period. The trouble comes, as expected, with the Nazis’ rise to power and, with that, any Jewish birth or Jewish marital connection, becomes a death sentence.
We follow this extended family’s hopes and dreams through three generations, touching on the carefree days of 1924 and later the family’s removal to the concentration camps before ending with pre-millennial Britain in the last act, only to witness how swiftly their life of culture and prosperity prove insupportable as power and privilege are ripped away and their inevitable removal to the death camps is a foregone conclusion.
(L to R) Mishka Yarovoy, Nael Nacer, and Brenda Meaney (Photo/Liza Voll, courtesy of The Huntington)
Providing all manner of twists and turns, Stoppard has designed a series of intricate interactions within these relationships – an affair, a proposed duel, a mathematical improbability and a surprise conclusion as one family member discovers he is actually fully Christian and must grapple with his past. To find out how that came to be, you’ll have to wait till the last act. Stoppard, whose successes with plays like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Travesties and most especially Arcadia, which follows the same theme, wants us to see how quickly unbridled political power combined with a dangerous brew of prejudice, fear and religious frenzy can destroy entire societies. In Leopoldstadt we witness the astonishing pace with which these dramatic shifts in public opinion can occur and thrive.
An extraordinary and compelling exploration into one family (Twenty-one cast members play multiple roles!) who become victims in the massive dragnet of the Nazi regime and how swiftly that unthinkable evil can decimate tens of millions of lives.
A powerful and compelling drama infused with the added warmth and camaraderie of a fascinatingly complicated and deeply connected Jewish family. Highly recommended for a supremely perfect cast and Carey Perloff’s brilliant direction.
Phyllis Kay, Firdous Bamji, Teddy Schechter, and Joshua Chessin-Yudin (Photo/Teresa Castracane, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company)
With Samuel Adams as Fritz, Percy; Firdous Bamji as Kurt, Ludwig; Joshua Chessin-Yudin as Zac, Nathan; Sarah Corey as Wilma; Anna Theoni DiGiovanni as Hanna, Hermione; Samuel Douglas as Otto, Civilian; Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Ernst; Rachel Felstein as Eva, Nellie: Rebecca Gibel as Hilde, Rosa; Adrianne Krstansky as Poldi, Hanna; Brenda Meaney as Gretl; Harrison Morford as Young Jacob, Heini; William Morford as Pauli, Young Leo; Nael Nacer as Hermann; Teddy Schechter as Young Jacob, Heini/Pauli, Young Leo; Anna Slate as Jana, Sally; Adrianna Weir as Young Sally, Mimi/Young Rosa, Bella; Mila Weir as Young Sally, Mimi; Audrey Ella Wolff as Young Rosa, Bella; and Mishka Yarovoy as Jacob, Leo.
Beautiful period costumes designed by Alex Jaeger; Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel; Sound Design & Original Music by Jane Shaw; Projection Design by Yuki Izumihara; Wig & Makeup Design by Tom Watson; Associate Director Dori A. Robinson.
Through December 29th at Shakespeare Theatre Company at Harman Hall, 610 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202.547.1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.