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Jedlicka Performing Arts Center
POWERFUL NEW WORK – US PREMIERE of this OLIVIER nominated script.
The unquestionable love of a mother for her son is at the heart of this compelling new play. Fearless and indomitable she confronts his captors at enormous personal risk to fight for his release against the seemingly impossible might of the Nazi regime.This play explores the fragility of freedom and human rights: It serves as a cautionary tale, illustrating how quickly freedoms can erode and how easily human rights can be trampled under the weight of an authoritarian regime.
Material to Prepare:
Prepare a dramatic monologue (2 minute max) - Cold Readings from the Script
Time Commitment:
Typically Rehearsals are Sunday Afternoon, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Evenings.
Rehearsal Period 12/14 - 12/20, 1/4/26 - 2/19/26
Performances -Weekends 2/20/26 - 3/7/26
Character Type/Restrictions:
Hans Litten (M 20-30), a young radical lawyer who made his name in Berlin defending anti-fascists and prosecuting Hitler's Brownshirts. In 19 31 Litten subpoenaed Hitler in the Eden Dance Palace trial and subjected him to a gruelling cross-examination about political violence. His arrest on the night of the Reichstagfire was widely seen to be an act of revenge by the Fuhrer. In the concentration camps Litten became known as 'Hitler's personal prisoner' and was singled out for especially brutal treatment as a result. He was moved from Sonnenburg via Spandau, Esterwegen and Lichtenburg, to Dachau concentration camp where he died in 1938. Early in his career Litten adopted the Jewish identity his father had discarded. He died wearing the yellow star.
Irmgard Litten (F 50-60), Hans's mother, came from a well-established Prussian family in Konigsberg. She had liberal views and instilled a life-long love of the arts in her children. In 193 3 she confronted the Gestapo about the disappearance of her son and maintained her one-woman struggle to release him throughout the rest of the decade. In 19 3 8 Irmgard came to London where she found asylum. During the war she broadcast on the BBC about the Nazis and the fate of her son and spent several years teaching English and art to German POWs.
Carl von Ossietzky (M 20-40), editor of the left-wing magazine Die Weltbuhne and a celebrated pacifist who published details about Germany's secret rearmament programme. Arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire and badly beaten up by the SA in Sonnenburg, Ossietzky became the focus of an international campaign and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1936. He died two years later of tuberculosis while still in Gestapo custody.
Erich Muhsam (30-50), a German-Jewish anarchist, satirist, poet and playwright. Muhsam had been a member of the short-lived Bavarian Socialist Republic that was set up at the end of the First World War. Arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire, he became a prime target for SA violence and torture inside the concentration camps. Muhsam was murdered by his guards in 1934.
Dr Conrad (M 20-40) is an amalgam of several Gestapo officers encountered by Irmgard Litten in Berlin and referred to in her memoir ( one of whom carries the name 'Dr S' and another 'Otto Conrady').
Fritz Litten (M 50-60), Irmgard's husband and H ans's father. Fritz had won the Iron Cross in the First World War and was Rector of Konigsberg Law School when Hans put Hitler on the stand. As a young man, starting out on his legal career; Fritz had converted from Judaism to Lutheranism and throughout his life maintained his conservative and nationalist views. He disliked his son's politics and even more the turn his legal career had taken. Estranged from Irmgard after Hans's imprisonment, he nevertheless lobbied on behalf of his son - an increasingly impossible thing to do since, following the Nuremberg Laws, he was now considered to be Jewish' again. In 1938 he became a refugee in Northern Ireland where he died two years later.
Gustav Hammerman (M 30-40), a communist political prisoner and artist who befriended Hans at Lichtenburg concentration camp.
Lord Clifford Allen (M 30-50) had been a conscientious objector during the First World War and suffered a harsh regime in prison as a result. As a prominent member of the Independent Labour Party in the 1920s he took the surprising step of following Ramsay MacDonald into the National Government in 19 31, after which he was raised to the peerage. During the 1930s he worked for Anglo-German understanding and attempted to intercede on behalf of Litten and many other political prisoners. His evident belief in the sincerity of Hitler and the peaceful intentions of Nazi Germany in the end made him an ineffective spokesman for Litten.
To apply for this job please visit www.jpac.online.