Stage Production

Arthur Miller adapted his screenplay for the stage. When I was a freshman at North Adams State College (MA) in 1989 I appeared in a production of 'Playing for Time' as a kapo. I must admit that swinging the truncheon came so easily that I once left welts on the backs of a couple of my castmates. I must have told myself that the prop was made of soft material so I could swing away. The director had the inmates & kapos switch roles during one rehearsal - a good reminder of how lives were turned upside-down at Auschwitz. The play takes a surreal approach to the story's harsh reality (Fania hears 'Madame Butterfly' while seeing the camp inmates being herded off to the gas chambers). The cast felt that, being adapted from another medium, the material had its limitations, but that it was still well worth watching. I never saw the movie until I taped it off a local TV station almost 6 years later.