Richard Thomas, the television and stage veteran who made his name as a teen on The Waltons, is superb as von Berg, the Austrian prince. It also forces them to reckon with reality: despite their attempts at optimism, they are now in the custody of the German military, with the collaboration of French police-almost certainly a predicament from which escape is impossible.Ī large, all-male cast plays out this incredibly tense drama. Vulgarity can be enough to send a man out of his country.” The presence of this outsider arouses varying emotions among the Frenchmen, ranging from admiration to contempt. Asked why someone with nothing to fear from the Nazis would make such a move, he explains that he could no longer bear their “vulgarity…their adoration of dreadful art and grocery clerks in uniform telling the orchestra what music it may not play. There is also an Austrian expatriate among the detainees, who has fled his native country despite belonging to a noble family with an impeccable bloodline. On the surface, they seem to have nothing particular in common, but it soon becomes clear that most, if not all of them are carrying false papers in order to hide their ethnic origins. They include an impatient businessman, a scruffy artist, a nervous teenager, a haughty actor, and a Vienna-trained psychiatrist, among others. A diverse group of Frenchmen have been picked up by the authorities and are waiting to be questioned. The action of Incident at Vichy takes place entirely within the walls of a makeshift detention center in the region of France that was ostensibly “free” following the German invasion in 1940 (the German army occupied the north and west of the country while a government approved by the Nazis controlled the south those who did not accept this arrangement formed the French Resistance). It may not be one of Miller’s “greatest hits,” but it is Miller through and through. Why theatres, or audiences, so heavily prefer his earlier works is a matter of debate, but for those who want to experience one of his “later” plays, there is Signature Theatre’s current production of Incident at Vichy, originally staged in 1964. These two plays are from Miller’s most commercially successful period, the late 1940s through the early 1950s however, he was still writing up until the year before his death. In honor of his centenary, the current stage season here in New York is chock full of Miller, with A View from the Bridge currently running on Broadway and The Crucible scheduled for spring (both, weirdly, are London transplants directed by the suddenly ubiquitous Ivo van Hove). Sadly, he only made it to age 90, passing away in 2005. Photo by Joan Marcus.īOTTOM LINE: Arthur Miller’s 1964 examination of the Holocaust as it played out in France is, like all of his best work, a tragedy you can’t look away from.Īrthur Miller would have turned 100 this year. Richard Thomas, Derek Smith and Jonathan Gordon in Incident at Vichy. Whether it was a family milestone they wanted to live long enough to share or the prospect of doctors ɹnding a cure by studying their illness, having a why to live for enabled them to bear the how.By Arthur Miller Directed by Michael Wilson Often it was the only thing that had given their lives meaning and, without it, they spent day after day sitting at home, depressed, “with nothing to do.” I have known people who rose to the challenge of enduring the most terrible aʀictions and situations as long as they believed there was a point to their suʃering. Their work had given their lives meaning. I have known successful businessmen who, upon retirement, lost all zest for life. The Nazi throws it all in the wastebasket and tells him:“Good, now you have nothing.” The man, whose self-esteem had always depended on the respect of others, is emotionally destroyed.Frankl would have argued that we are never left with nothing as long as we retain the freedom to choose how we will respond.My own congregational experience has shown me the truth ofFrankl’s insights. The Nazi asks him, “Is that everything you have?” The man nods. “There is a scene in Arthur Miller’s play Incident at Vichy in which an upper-middle-class professional man appears before the Nazi authority that has occupied his town and shows his credentials: his university degrees, his letters of reference from prominent citizens,and so on. Quoting here from the preface of the book which sums up the idea of this masterpiece on Survival. He who has a why to live for can bear almost any How ~ Nietzsche
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