I don't know when Six Points Theater decided to produce the new play
The Messenger by Playwrights' Center affiliated writer
Jenny Connell Davis as part of their 30th season, but it really could not come at a better or more relevant time. But let's face it, anti-Semitism has never gone away, racism has never gone away, hate has never gone away. It feels like as long as there are humans on this planet, this story will be relevant. The inter-related stories of four women are woven together in this riveting 80-minute play, centered around the true story of Holocaust survivor
Georgia Gabor, who faced anti-Semitism as an 8th grade math teacher a wealthy community in California in the '80s and '90s, simply because she told her story. She believed that she survived, escaping from the Nazis three times, in order to share her story, to be a messenger. She died in 1994, but she continues to be a messenger through this wonderful and moving play, and thanks to Six Points for bringing us this message that we have to be vigilant, we have to stand up for injustices big and small wherever we see them, because it absolutely could happen here.
Go see The Messenger at Six Points Theater's Highland Park space through March 23 only.
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| Laura Esping as Georgia Gabor (photo courtesy of Six Points) |
In a classroom in the early '90s, we listen with rapt attention as Georgia tells her story to her students. As a young Jewish teenager in Budapest, the daughter of a well-respected lawyer, she saw almost her entire family killed, survived on the streets for years, and witnessed and experienced unthinkable violence and abuse. Interspersed with her story, we also hear from Angela, a mother of one of Georgia's students, who wants to protect her daughter from the evils of the world and does not appreciate Georgia's stories; Gracie, a researcher at Huntington Library (aka The Hunt) who in 1969 discovers amongst The Hunt's archives the original Nuremburg Laws from 1935, that set the groundwork for the eventual murder of six million Jews; and Annie, an Asian American teenager in 2020 working in The Hunt's gardens and experiencing first-hand the rise of AAPI hate that happened during the covid pandemic. These four very different but related stories are doled out concurrently, as we slowly piece together how they're all related.
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Tracey Maloney as Angela
(photo courtesy of Six Points) |
Each one of these stories is so compelling, and combined together tell an even greater story. Georgia was an unbelievably strong young woman who survived against impossible odds, with her body and her spirit intact (
watch an interview with her here). Annie stayed silent while her friend was being attacked, for which she felt guilty, but she was a kid, and how many of us have stood by silently when witnessing hate? Gracie too had to choose between her career, as one of the few female archivists at The Hunt, and telling the world about these important documents. Angela is the least sympathetic of the four women, in fact she's infuriating when she says things like "that's her history, that's not our history" (because it IS our history). But she's also a very familiar person; she's not an overt anti-Semite, but she goes along with anti-Semitism under the guise of protecting those she loves (an attitude that could be part of how we ended up in this weird and terrifying moment in history).
Faye M. Price directs the piece, and the stories are so clearly told, so beautifully woven together. All the jumping around between the stories and through decades could be confusing, but it's deftly handled here. The lighting design helps us know who to follow, on a set that's literally a blank white canvas - a wall of white squares and many white document boxes, with a few props hidden around. Sparingly used projections give us a sense of time and place, and the sound design provides atmosphere, including the sound of bombs and gunshots. The costume design for these four different women help tell us who they are. (Scenic design by Michael Hoover, lighting design by James Eischen, sound design by Reid Rejsa, projection design by Tom Burgess, and costume design by A. Emily Heaney.)
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Julia Isabel Diaz as Gracie and Ashley Horiuchi
as Annie (photo courtesy of Six Points) |
This cast really couldn't be better, in a play that is essentially a quadralogue - four monologues, the characters speaking directly to the audience and not to each other, although occasionally exchanging meaningful glances. Laura Esping has a wonderful spark in her eye as Georgia tells her stories, but balanced with a matter-of-factness and deadly seriousness. Tracey Maloney brings humanity to the role of Angela, even as we're angered by her choices and words. Julia Isabel Diaz is so believable as the researcher excited by her work, and betrayed by her mentors. Last but not least, Ashley Horiuchi's Annie transforms from just a typical teenager, worried about boys and mean girls, into someone forever changed by witnessing the evils of the world. Evils that despite Angela's protests, we cannot protect our children from knowing about. In fact, they need to know about it to protect themselves and those around them from it.
The Messenger is just the kind of play we need right now. We need to remember our history so that we don't repeat it, and artists can help us do that. Even better when it's done in a thoroughly engaging and moving way, like this play.
