ANTHONY E. GALLO
directed by
ROLAND BRANDFORD GOMEZ
PERFORMANCES
Friday 7/11/08 5:30 PM
Sunday 7/13/08 8 PM
Wednesday 7/16/08 9:15 PM
Saturday 7/19/08 7 PM
Sunday 7/20/08 5 PM
PURCHASE TICKETS:
1. At 607 New York Avenue, NW
2. At Universalist Stage
3. capitalfringe.org
4. Call: 1.866.811.411
UNIVERSALIST MEMORIAL STAGE
1810 16th Street NW 20009
Washington ,DC 2009
Near The Heart of the 16th Street Theatre District near DuPont Circle
16th and S Street, NW
CAST
Mark Adams, Mary Ayala-Bush, Albert Petrasek, David Seemiller, Bill Branigan, Bonnie Jourdan, Jim Howard, Eddie Page
This two-act drama examines forgiveness amidst three conversions. Rome's aloof and scholarly Chief Rabbi Zolli loses faith following the apparent slaughter of his Polish family during the Holocaust. He receives asylum in the Vatican, where he comes to appreciate Jesus as God suffering for humanity. The Rabbi re-finds faith and converts to Roman Catholicism. This is seen as a betrayal of his spiritual duty and a defection to the age-old enemy. Was his conversion one of conviction or merely gratitude? What does he demand at his baptism that eventually removes a major symbol of discrimination? Like Jonah, in choosing a Christian path to God, the Rabbi is faced with forgiving the slaughtering enemy. How will he meet the challenge? Then the next two conversions are as shocking as the first.
He clashes with other characters as they too are forced to deal with forgiveness. Zolli's housekeeper will neither forgive nor forget the Nazi atrocities. A Nazi officer transports hundreds to Auschwitz and then seeks forgiveness through contrition and good works. A Cardinal attempts to assassinate Hitler, provides asylum to thousands, saves the Vatican, but should he have broken the diplomatic neutrality? A Catholic intellectual cleric has his faith severely tested by the death of his family. Does HE forgive God? The secular head of the Roman Jewish community, a former fascist, must make choices that will affect his community, but can he forgive a converted rabbi? The gutsy Calabrian Prioress valiantly hides refugees, but can she forgive her past?