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Theater review: ‘Heydrich/Hitler/Holocaust’ at the MET Theatre

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The name of ‘Final Solution’ architect Reinhard Heydrich isn’t typically remembered among the top tier of Nazi villains, but that’s an oversight that playwright Cornelius Schnauber sets out to correct with his new drama, ‘Heydrich/Hitler/Holocaust,’ at the MET Theatre.

Schnauber, who heads USC’s Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies, brings a wealth of historical insight and detail to his account of the pivotal 1942 Wannsee Conference -- where Heydrich, Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders met to develop plans for exterminating Europe’s Jewish population -- and its aftermath.

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Director L. Flint Esquerra and his fine cast bring the characters to life with intensity and urgency. Oliver Finn’s smarmy, good-looking Heydrich is a skillful political infighter who’s parlayed his job as head of counterintelligence into the third most powerful position in the Third Reich, outranked only by his boss and principal antagonist, Heinrich Himmler (dour, relentless Joseph Beck), and Hitler (Don Paul, distinctively ominous and maniacal).

In the play’s games of cat-and-mouse, Heydrich attempts to dodge persistent rumors of his Jewish ancestry, which Hitler perpetuates to curb Heydrich’s power and pit him against Himmler and his other top brass. Meanwhile, Heydrich toys with Anna (Jessica Sherman), the beautiful Jewish servant who offers to trade information about an assassination plot against him in exchange for softening his plans for incarcerated Jews.

Amid heady philosophical discussions rationalizing genocide, the Nazis’ horrific logic of brutality is clear and inexorable, but be forewarned that the show often plays more like a debate than a drama. As Anna’s dialogue with Heydrich and later with Hitler invoke morality with eloquence and passion, there’s an air of wish fulfillment about them -- what one would say to Hitler if one had the chance. But there’s no reason to believe such speeches would have been tolerated by a monster who held all the cards. Sadly, it took more than words to bring him down.

-- Philip Brandes

Heydrich/Hitler/Holocaust,’ MET Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 11. $15. (323) 957-1152. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

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