Through the Darkness

Author(s): Alan C. Breindel
Through the Darkness recounts the unimaginable journeys and true stories of four courageous men and women who left everything behind, including their loved ones, so that they might stay one step ahead of the Holocaust. They are composite characters that playwright Breindel built from interviews with Holocaust survivors. Three of the four characters managed to avoid the horrors of the concentration camps and remain free, even if freedom was no more than the right to die on their own terms. We meet these four characters as people in late middle age, living comfortably in America in the mid 1980s. The characters include a German Jew who emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1930s, was drafted and became a POW during the Battle of the Bulge; a Polish woman who could pass as Christian and spent the war on the run; a woman sent from the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz; and a daring son of a Polish peddler who fled to Russia and survived by working for the Soviets in Siberia and later, by joining the Polish Army. For most of them, chaos was inescapable, freedom was motion, and the only safe place was anyplace other than where they were. Each of the characters repeatedly comes face to face with seemingly insurmountable obstacles to daily survival, showing us that when life is vastly different, life is still livable.
Format: Full-length play
Cast Size:3M/2F
Running Time: 90 minutes

Snapshot

Original or Prominent Production:
The Workshop Theater, New York City, March 9 to April 1, 2017.
Original Source Material: Interviews with Holocaust survivors.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:

Alan C. Breindel

Browse the Plays

Play Index

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

HTC Insights

Views, reference and research of interest.

A Personal Welcome to the Holocaust Theater Catalog

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...

Lifetime Achievement Award

The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Lifetime Achievement Award

On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.