Blumenthal directs new production of Address Unknown
The Tamarama Rock Surfers are proud to team up with Moira Blumenthal Productions, for the return of the critically acclaimed work, Address Unknown starring John O’Hare ( and Patrick Dickson (The Alchemist).
Moira Blumenthal
What makes a good person do evil things?
Set in 1932, Address Unknown chronicles the friendship between two business partners in a successful San Francisco art gallery. Martin Schulse, a German-born Aryan, has returned to Germany with his wife and children and re-established ties to his homeland becoming active with the National Socialists; Max Eisenstein, a German Jew, has remained to run the gallery in San Francisco.
Letters between the two men reveal the ideological divide between the former friends/partners and the truth about Germany’s new order. Under the influence of Nazism, Martin commits a cowardly act of betrayal, and his former friend exacts an ingenious and deadly revenge.
When Address Unknown was first published as a novella in 1938, the New York Times called it ‘the most effective indictment of Nazism to appear in fiction.’
Director Moira Blumenthal explains why she was attracted to the work, “Man’s inhumanity to man reached a climax with Hitler and his staging of the Holocaust. As an artist I was challenged by the great tragedy of betrayal and retribution in the play. As a Jew – the ongoing question – ‘how could this happen?’ How could the Holocaust happen in a civilized society, and furthermore – what role could individual citizens have played in halting the atrocities. Is it feasible that without the consensus of the people, a warped ideology could have no power?”
‘Address Unknown is a confronting and cautionary tale …told through the fault-lines of friendship.’ The Jewish News
TRS artistic director Leland Kean says of programming the work, “Like Bondi Dreaming this is an important work and production that struck me as truly deserving of a second season for the Sydney stage and a perfect fit in our 2012 season at the Bondi Pavilion.”
Cast: Patrick Dickson and John O’Hare | Director: Moira Blumenthal | Set Design: Barry French | Lighting Design: Tony Youlden | Sound Design: Moira Blumenthal
Bookings 8019 0282 or www.rocksurfers.org
