A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
The Banality of Evil
Author(s): Jesse Freedman
Based on Hannah Arendt’s controversial idea of “the banality of evil” and her scandalous New Yorker article about the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1963. The performance is a neo-noir courtroom drama about a “show-trial on trial” and the mystery of how everyday people become war criminals.
The play explores why Eichmann became a Nazi and committed crimes against humanity, what caused the collapse of the show trial of the century, and how a magazine article was at the center of a global controversy.
Format: Drama
Cast Size: 3
Notes:
Visit the Meta-Phys Ed. website for more information.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Developed in residency at Target Margin Theater, 2022; presented as a workshop in 2022 at The Tank, Manhattan, NY; performance at the Brick Theater, Brooklyn, March–April, 2024.
Developed in residency at Target Margin Theater, 2022; presented as a workshop in 2022 at The Tank, Manhattan, NY; performance at the Brick Theater, Brooklyn, March–April, 2024.
Original Source Material: Hannah Arendt was an influential German Jewish political philosopher, theorist of totalitarianism and anti-semitism, and refugee surviver of the Third Reich. In her infamous article on the Eichmann trial, Arendt reported in person from the Jerusalem courtroom and concluded that the accused architect of the Final Solution was not a fanatical monster, but a thoughtless clown.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Meta-Phys Ed., New York
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