What Would You Do?

Blonde Poison – Agency Theatre Collective

In World War II Berlin, a Jewish woman named Stella Kubler collobarated with the Nazis to help find other Jews in hiding, in exchange for her family’s safety. With blonde hair and blue eyes, she could pass for German. Stella, called ‘blonde poison’ by the Gestapo, is the focus of a new play by Cindy Henkin, presented by The Agency Theatre Collective.

The story opens on Stella, already working for the Nazis, and tasked with getting information from Esther, a woman arrested that morning. She pretends to be a fellow prisoner to try to learn what Esther knows. The show is at its most successful when Stella and Esther are facing off against each other. Marie Weigle as Stella and Alison Schaufler as Esther are very good in their parts, and play well off each other. Weigle has to make Stella, if not exactly sympathetic, at least understandable. Schaufler has to make Esther a counterpoint without making her an heroic caricature. Both succeed.

Stella forces the audience to grapple with how they would act if they were in the same position. It’s very easy from a position of relative safety to condemn her, but until you are faced with the same choice, can you really know what you would do? Esther forces Stella to face that idea the harm she has done isn’t just to the people she has helped arrest, but that her very existence means that Jews can’t even trust each other when they need to depend on each other the most. In Weigle and Schaufler’s hands, that conflict is compelling.

The set design was very good. Most of the space is open, empty, and painted a mottled grey. Upstage, a few props straight out of a noir film anchor the scenes outside the jail cell. The combined effect is a space that feels barren and surreal, but in a way that supports the action rather than overwhelms it.

If I have to level a critique at the story, it’s that I think it relies a little too heavily on Stella giving a monologue at points, especially during scene transitions. The characters do a better job portraying the conflict by interacting with each other than they can do talking just about it. That’s not to say Weigle wasn’t up to the task. I just think the same points were better made when other characters were there to react to them.

The show may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Given the subject matter, I don’t think I’ll surprise anyone when I say the show starts in a dark place and stays there. But on the strength of a strong central conflict and some very good acting, the result is thought provoking and worth your time.

Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented October 4 – November 3 by The Agency Theatre Collective at Greenhouse Theatre at 2257 N. Lincoln, Chicago.

Tickets are available at greenhousetheater.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.