Consequences: The Trial of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Examines Franklin D. Roosevelt’s immigration policies during WWII through the eyes of survivor Arthur Mandel. When Arthur dies and is seeking admission to heaven, he has two goals: to be reunited with his wife Leah who died in Auschwitz, and to avenge FDR, whose policies were the cause of her death. God grants Mandel permission to put FDR on trial, and from the confrontations of the trial, the play shifts back in time to the romance between Arthur and Leah, as well as to the horror Leah experiences in Auschwitz.

Format: Drama

Cast Size:6M/2F

Character breakdown:

Arthur Mandel—a German Holocaust survivor
Young Arthur Mandel
Leah Mandel
God
FDR
Female (plays multiple roles):
Lilly—young woman/friend of Young Mandel and Heinrich
Interviewer—first person to greet Mandel in Heaven
Catcher—a woman of Jewish heritage who turns in other Jews in order to stay alive
Male 1 (plays multiple roles):
Heinrich—best friend of Young Mandel and Lilly
Mutler—a Nazi
Catcher— a man of Jewish heritage who turns in other Jews in order to stay alive
Male 2 (plays multiple roles):
Rabbi—American
Long—Breckenridge Long, the U.S. State Department official in charge of European refugees during WWII
Official—American Consular Official from the office of the American Embassy in unoccupied France.

Original or Prominent Production:
The New Stage Performing Arts Center, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, September 2011.

Original Language: English

Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | Perpetrators, Bystanders and Collaborators | Survivors and Subsequent Generations