Word: halder
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...embrace and support the Nazi regime of Hitler. Good is a study of the gradual acquiescence of a nation toward the hatred and genocide that took place in '30s Germany, culminating in the Holocaust. It explores this theme on a personal, individual level--through the character of John Halder (Diego Arciniegas), a humanities professor and a fundamentally good man who ultimately dons an S.S. uniform and heads off for his new position at the Auschwitz death camp. Halder's ascent (or descent) is recounted in a series of disconnected episodes that recall the pivotal moments in his life...
...Halder, in a smart performance by Arciniegas, a member of the theater department at Wellesley College, is a frustrated soul. His way of coping with stress is to hear imaginary band music, from cabaret numbers to classical symphonic excerpts. And he has much to be stressed about. His wife Helen (Joy Brooke Fairfield '03) confines herself to the home in neurotic fear. His mother (Cheryl Chan '03) is blind and suffers from an annoying senile dementia that drives Halder to publish his pro-euthanasia book during one of his depressed bouts. His best friend is a Jewish psychiatrist named Maurice...
...Premise: An annual event, the freshman play this year is C.P. Taylor's tale of how an ordinary, "good" intellectual German man, John Halder, lets himself be turned into a Nazi. With professional guest director Daniel Gidron (Women on Top, Mere Mortals) and Guest Equity Actor Diego Arciniegas...
...fool ourselves about our role as the Everyman." And despite the play being set in '30s Nazi Germany, the play has "as many implications for today as back then." Look out too for the riotous German tunes, which lend a tone of absurdity to the dream-world of John Halder...