This April, the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning Fountain Theatre brings back last season's sold-out production of The Accomplices by former New York Times political reporter Bernard Weinraub. The true story of firebrand Peter Bergson, who shook up the U.S. State Department and the American Jewish establishment in his fight to rescue European Jews from the Nazis, is back with Steven Schub heading the cast ("a dynamic, impassioned portrayal" - Buzzine) and director Deborah LaVine at the helm ("Lavine skillfully melds a fine cast into a gripping production" - LA Weekly). The Fountain Theatre production, presented in association with the Israeli Leadership Council (ILC), re-opens at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. for a limited guest engagement April 25 through June 14. One low-priced preview takes place on April 24.
What the U.S. government and American Jews did - and didn't - do to help Jews fleeing the Nazis is the subject of Weinraub's provocative new play based on true events. In 1940, Hillel Kook arrived in the U.S. fresh from the underground resistance in Palestine. Changing his name to Peter Bergson, he sought aid for the rescue of European Jews from the Nazis. Shocked to find himself blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and the Jewish establishment, Bergson spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements and lobbying in Congress in his one-man fight to save millions and end the conspiracy of silence and inaction that continues to haunt us to this day.
"For many years this remained a little-known footnote in American history," comments Fountain Theatre artistic director Stephen Sachs. "It's a fascinating story that casts U.S. foreign policy during World War II in a surprising light."
A long-time reporter for The New York Times, Bernard Weinraub was a political correspondent in Vietnam, London, New Delhi and Washington D.C., including the White House, before moving to Los Angeles in 1991 to cover the film business. It was while he was based in D.C. that he was assigned to cover a documentary about Peter Bergson called Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die? by the young filmmaker Laurence Jarvik. The subject stayed with him, and a dozen years later he began work on his own play. The Accomplices went on to win a Stellar Network award, leading to its premiere in New York by The New Group in March, 2007 and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best New Play. The West Coast premiere at The Fountain played to SRO houses for an extended, ten-week run. "Weinraub brings a seldom-dramatized chapter of history to vivid life... a consistently lucid and fast-paced production" wrote theater critic Don Shirley in LA Citybeat. "GO!," agreed the LA Weekly: "a gripping production." The Hollywood Reporter called The Fountain Theatre production of The Accomplices "A powerful play that will get your blood racing and your brain thinking, skillfully acted and directed."
Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in Bergson's story. The Fountain re-opening is scheduled to coincide with the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Week. That same weekend, Pierre Sauvage's documentary short about Bergson, Not Idly By - Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust, premieres as part of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, and this summer will see the release of Against the Tide, a documentary narrated by Dustin Hoffman. In 2003, David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff's book, "A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust" included previously unpublished letters, including a scathing indictment of the Roosevelt administration's inaction by a Treasury Department official.
The Fountain Theatre cast includes Steven Schub as Peter Bergson; William Dennis Hurley as fellow Zionist Samuel Merlin; Time Winters as FDR; Brian Carpenter as Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long; Gregory G. Giles as FDR advisor Sam Rosenman; Dennis Gersten as playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht; and Malachi Throne as Rabbi Stephen Wise. Also in the cast are Elizabeth Karr, Annika Marks, Stephen Marshall and Donne McRae. Set Design for The Accomplices is by Scott Siedman; Lighting Design is by Christian Epps; Costume Design is by Shon LeBlanc; Sound Design is by David B. Marling; Props are by Dean Coleman; Dialect Coach is JB Blanc; Production Stage Manager is Jeremy A. Levin; and Stephen Sachs produces.
