Word: erdelyi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...play involves the story of an old Hungarian scholar who is trying to author a book about Hungary after the First World War and Germany during the Weimar Republic and during the rise of Hitler. As Antal Erdelyi, the 85-year-old and decidedly eccentric protagonist, professional acting teacher Robert Owczarek puts on a marvelous performance that in the long run saves the show from triviality and boredom. Owczarek splendidly mimics the movements, speech pattern and inflection of an elderly European gentleman, getting the most out of lines that are sometimes overwritten...
...flashbacks detail the interactions of a Communist cell in Berlin circa 1928. The major "failing" involved is a missed opportunity to kill Hitler, or so the old man perceives it. The main action in the play, excitingly enough, rotates about the writing of the book, complemented by flashbacks. Erdelyi hires a young college student, well played by Paul Jackel, to assist him, and the two suffer through an alternately close and cold relationship. But just why the tone of the relationship varies so is never quite clear...
...play, it is rather easy to guess, which is not so much a flaw in the writing as an indication of the weakness inherent in the subject matter. How the issue of guilt-the moral culpability for the holocaust-is applicable to America in 1977 is not explained. Is Erdelyi trying to pass the guilt for the "failing" onto Stephen, his young assistant, or is he simply a lonely old man reaching out for companionship? The answer seems to involve a bit of both, but the ambiguity chafes the nerves...