`Race' To Nowhere

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Nazism lures despondent 1933 German
medical students in UDM theater production.

"Bruckner is a figure, like so many
exiles of the Third Reich, who would
have been quite influential had the
Nazis not so savagely interrupted his
n 1933, playwright Ferdinand
career."
Bruckner, a 23-year-old German
Race is one of a trilogy that includes
Jew, produced a prophetic work
Pains of Youth and Criminals. All three
called Race, a "Holocaust
deal with the lost generations of
drama" that eerily echoed Bruckner's
German youth in the two
sense that a catastrophe was
world war eras, and mix
coming.
Arthur Miller-like naturalism
He was one of the first
and psychological realism,
major German intellectuals to
says Edelstein.
issue such a warning.
"Race moves me very
Barry Edelstein, artistic
deeply, so I trust it will move
director of the Classic Stage
others. Bruckner's politics
Company in New York, -
were very much in the line
adapted Race for the stage and
of liberal humanism
directed the New York pro-
espoused by so many assimi-
duction last February and
lated German Jews of the
March. Says Edelstein, "It is a
period. He believed that
play about a generation of
Barry Edelstein,
nationalism was the worst
young people who literally
pictured, adapted
scourge, and that humanity
believe they have no future.
Ferninand
with no borders, no identity
With no hope, a charismatic
Bruckner's play.
papers, no categorizations or
demagogue with a simple and
racial definitions, was the
passionate political philosophy
highest ideal."
finds them easy to recruit."
One figure in the play,
On Oct. 5, the Theatre
Professor Goldschmidt, the mentor of
Company, on the Outer Drive campus
the medical students, becomes a target
of the University of Detroit Merc-y, will
of the Nazi student movement once
present Race under the direction of
Hider is elected to power. His philoso-
Yolanda Fleischer.
phy of faith in humanity remains the
"It's part love story, part warning,"
touchstone of hope for the young peo-
says Fleischer of the play, in which the
ple who manage to survive.
love between a German medical student
In an interview last February,
and his girlfriend is tested when he is
Edelstein explained his personal connec-
pressured to join the Nazi Party, The
tion to Bruckner in this way: "Certainly
production centers around a group of
I share the anguish he expresses at what
medical students and the impact that
these barbarians wrought in the heart of
propaganda has on their lives.
a great and civilized nation."
The play is at once melodramatic,
Perhaps Bruckner's words are as
and believable, forcing the audience to
prophetic today as they were in 1933.
keep some "intellectual distance,"
according to Fleischer. "The students'
struggle between reason and fanaticism
Race runs 8 p.m. Thursdays-
parallels what we're dealing with at this
Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays,
moment," she adds.
Oct. 5-21, at the Theatre
Edelstein began researching Bruckner
Company on the Outer Drive
while teaching at New York University
campus of the University of Detroit
and Juilliard, after having been
Mercy. A talk-back will follow the
"knocked out" by another Bruckner
Sunday, Oct. 14, performance.
play, Pains of Youth. He came across
Tickets available at the box office.
Race and resolved to do it one day.
$8-$12. (313) 993 6461.
"The play stunned me," he says.

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