Luna Stage’s Polite Political Play “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” at WP Theater Off-Broadway – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Luna Stage’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library

By Ross

“Please.” “Please.” “Please,” asks the oh-so polite imprisoning Gestapo officer who has officially arrested a young Jewish intellectual woman for suspicious wandering through the Prussian State Library in Germany in the year 1933. “We may need to keep you longer“, he tells the shocked Hannah, played distinctly by Ella Dershowitz (Vineyard’s Can You Forgive Her?), setting the tone and formula for Luna Stage’s production of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, a new play by Jenny Lyn Baber (Equally Divine) that most recently was extended and transferred from its run at 59E59 Theatres to off-Broadway’s WP Theater for a limited five-week engagement.

The officer, Karl, played almost too kind by a rosy-cheeked Brett Temple (HBO’s “Mrs. Fletcher“), has placed the woman in a cell for charges unbeknownst to the woman at the beginning of this 90-minute one-act play. It’s an unquestionably interesting premise to engage with, especially with the problematic political state of fascist affairs that is quickly approaching America, although not all that satisfying when it wraps itself up neatly in a connecting framework of advising. As directed almost too widely by Ari Laura Kreith (Luna Stage’s RIFT), Mrs. Stern… proceeds forward with an uncharacteristically gentle interrogation, even as the walls and locked doors start to close in on the philosophizing young woman. The questions display a thoughtful framing, giving clues to their aim and purpose, but the answers have a shifting response that connects to the idea of innocence within a more complicated fascist formula that would more typically demand something different.

There are complex compilations that register as ominous, in their detailing, like the moment she signs a form that made her “officially here“, which we learn later is worded in a way that sounds like she has asked to be imprisoned for her own safety, rather than, in essence, the other way around. Hanna Stern, it turns out, is formed from the philosopher Hannah Arendt, who many believe to be one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century. Her character has been placed in this uncomfortable predicament to examine how innocent souls can be imprisoned for treason in a fascist state, using their own intellectualism against them. The ideas resonate, as there is no way to watch this investigative play without seeing the disturbing unprecedented times and parallels to the approaching orange monster chaos of the newly elected American administration.

Dershowitz’s Hannah, dressed tightly and properly by costume designer Deborah Caney (Luna Stage’s Queen of the Night), peers through the keyhole in the locked door and out through the high-barred windows, hoping to understand her predicament a wee bit better. She’s sharp and contemplative, with undercurrents of emotional compassion and understanding that almost overwhelm her somewhat passive casualness, which seems as unnatural in this situation as her chain smoking. She engages with the young fresh-faced police officer, attempting to draw out their similarities and mutual understanding of situational constructs and philosophy to help win her release. It feels clever when the young man is in her presence, but the shifting isn’t substantial enough when he leaves. The true terror of what is happening to her never really sinks into our bones and our consciousness. She curls up, on the table or on the radiator, with a straightforwardness that doesn’t do her predicament justice.

Temple does a somewhat stronger job of fluctuating between a simple good man to a Gestapo officer trying to do his job correctly and properly. He has been newly elevated, gaining a promotion from a standard criminal policeman to a more powerful political Gestapo officer He is also too new at his job to find the hardness and discipline that this new role requires. Standing a tad too close, he’s off-guarded curious about her, shifting his position with each cup of coffee and cigarette given to his polite and engaging captive. It feels authentic, but also too polite in how he treats his 1st arrest and how easily her statements around judgment and thinking attach themselves to him and alter his perspective.

A stronger engagement comes midway through, when a surprise visit from a lawyer by the name of Erich, played convincingly by Drew Hirshfield (NBC’s “The Blacklist“), enters the space, and tries to convince the unsure Hannah to let him represent her. He assures her that he will do all he can to get her, and her mother, who was also arrested at the same time, released and the charges dropped. His optimism feels somewhat overwrought, given the history we now know, as he attempts to gain her confidence by overstating his stature in the community. He admits that the ever-changing rules and restrictions are endangering the Jewish population in Germany, but he also believes that things couldn’t possibly get any worse. He’s a strong addition to the formula, although his use becomes less important as the play shifts into its final scenes.

Standing upright in the bleak (but not foreboding enough) cell, designed by Lauren Helpern (RT’s Skintight), with careful lighting by Cameron Filepas (Theatre Row’s Camp Rock) and sound by Megan Culley (PT’s The Loophole), Mrs. Stern… wants to dig us into the darkening atmosphere of Hannah’s plight, giving us shards of disturbing ideas and language that amplify the intellectual arguments. Yet, I was waiting for something more compelling and conflictual to happen as the play moves toward its final engagement. The play engages with a sure-footedness that is deliberate, and filled with sharp ideas and subtle intellectualism, but when the final framing hits, the feeling is simple and not at all shocking, as it is unpacked as straightforward as the room itself. I was hoping for an electric reveal or a surprising twist of fate and duplicity, but Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library gives us an ending that only eliminates rather than elevates the possibility of drama by giving us hope. That may feel good to some at this time in American history (which I understand), but it doesn’t capture the fear inside some of us of what could be lying ahead in America’s future.