At the end of Councils week last Thursday in San Francisco, I took a group of members, friends, high school classmates, college and business school pals out to the premiere of an important play, The Obligation.
The challenging play by my dear friend Roger Grunwald – talented actor, writer, and son of an Auschwitz survivor – deals with important untold aspects of the Holocaust and asks challenging questions relevant to today’s world:
- Why do we ‘demonize’ the ‘other’?
- Did American racism and Jim Crow laws influence Nazi ideology?
- What does it mean to be a survivor – and what price do you pay to survive?
- What does the Holocaust mean to us today?
- What does ‘never again’ mean?
- And to whom does that apply?
Roger wrote the challenging – and, at times, even funny work (there’s a Groucho Marx character) – and (exhaustingly) performs about 12 major and minor characters.
If you are in San Francisco, go see it (http://potrerostage.org/theobligation). You’ll be impressed by Roger’s artistry and you’ll be challenged to think and see in new ways.
