{"id":369254,"date":"2025-06-11T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=369254"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:01:02","slug":"in-berlin-diaries-at-theater-j-an-absorbing-remembrance-of-lost-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/06\/11\/in-berlin-diaries-at-theater-j-an-absorbing-remembrance-of-lost-family\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Berlin Diaries\u2019 at Theater J, an absorbing remembrance of lost family"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slender yet precious thread connected playwright Andrea Stolowitz to her family\u2019s clouded past. The exquisite diary kept by her great-grandfather Dr. Max Cohnreich detailed his pre\u2013World War II life in Berlin, before Max and other family members escaped the Nazi threat. Using the diary as her guide, Stolowitz jumped headlong into an all-absorbing journey to recover her German Jewish family\u2019s fuller history. Her autobiographical play, The Berlin Diaries<\/em>, chronicles Stolowitz\u2019s voyage into the Cohnreichs\u2019 complicated story.<\/p>\n

We travel with Andrea from archives in the U.S. to Berlin, trailing the playwright down rabbit holes in search of missing information. We feel her frustration when she seems to reach dead ends. We share her awe when the dots are connected, revealing seismic discoveries.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lawrence Redmond and Dina Thomas in \u2018The Berlin Diaries.\u2019 Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The regional premiere of this absorbing play, directed by Elizabeth Dinkova at Theatre J, takes place in set designer Sarah Beth Hall\u2019s wonderfully dusty old archives, replete with faded volumes and plump packets of documents. We understand that these nondescript records contain information that no one has bothered to look at for decades. We learn that a single misfiled folder or a mistakenly recorded address can throw a passionate researcher right off the trail.<\/p>\n

Stolowitz tells her story in a unique and challenging way. Two actors (Lawrence Redmond and Dina Thomas) perform all the roles, from Andrea herself and her great-grandfather to her mother, cousins, and the unctuous archivists she encounters along the way. Both Redmond and Thomas occasionally portray Andrea, with their fast-paced repartee representing conversations she is having with herself. The pair use the barest of props, effective accents, and nuanced body language to switch in a nanosecond from one character to the next during a fast-paced 90 minutes on stage.<\/p>\n

The acting is truly heroic. Redmond and Thomas raise long-gone ancestors from the dead, breathing life, humor, irony, and pathos into Andrea\u2019s forebears. But the duo can\u2019t alleviate the confusion created by introducing so many characters so quickly during the first half of the play. We feel a bit unmoored, distracted by not quite being able to pinpoint the identity of each character, whether they exist in the past or present, and their relationships to Andrea. Too much and too little information overwhelms us too soon, threatening our attention.<\/p>\n

Not until the midpoint do we start to grasp the whole \u2014 what is known, and, as importantly, what has remained unknown about the family.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lawrence Redmond and Dina Thomas in \u2018The Berlin Diaries.\u2019 Photos by Ryan Maxwell Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Family lore maintains that the entire Cohnreich clan escaped the Holocaust and fanned out to Jewish enclaves in the U.S., Israel, Asia, and South America. Andrea digs way deeper, discovering missing members no one ever talked about. Their names scroll across electronic screens (by Projections Designer Deja Collins), superimposed over the archives. The number of the verschollen,<\/em> the lost, is breathtaking.<\/p>\n

As Andrea\u2019s research reveals living cousins she never dreamed she had, she is faced with an entirely new set of questions. Who or what erased knowledge of the relatives killed by the Nazis? Would any of her newly discovered clan care about their shared history, or is this project solely her<\/em> obsession? Andrea feverishly contacts every family member she can, but wisely ends her drama before we find out who responded. By then, to Stolowitz\u2019s credit, she has engendered enough interest among playgoers to make us want to know.<\/p>\n

The Berlin Diaries<\/em> reflects the emerging 3G (third generation) movement \u2014 founded by grandchildren of Holocaust survivors whose relationships to the Nazi atrocities are more distant in time yet still inextricably bound to their outcomes. Last year\u2019s film A Real Pain<\/em> is one expression of this generation\u2019s need to connect with their past. Andrea Stolowitz\u2019s sensitive new drama demonstrates that even among the newest generation of survivors\u2019 progeny, hidden histories, heroic efforts, and impossible losses remain immeasurably relevant to World War II\u2019s Jewish descendants and to humanity itself.<\/p>\n

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission<\/p>\n

EXTENDED: <\/strong>The Berlin Diaries<\/a><\/strong><\/em> plays through June 29, 2025,<\/strong> presented by Theater J<\/a>\u00a0at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater in the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th\u00a0Street NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($70\u2013$80, with member, student and military discounts available) online,<\/a><\/strong> by calling the ticket office at 202-777-3210, or by email (theaterj@theaterj.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The program for The Berlin Diaries<\/em> is online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/strong>
\nTheater J to present season finale \u2018The Berlin Diaries\u2019 <\/a><\/strong>(news story, April 30, 2025)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrea Stolowitz\u2019s sensitive new autobiographical drama chronicles her quest to uncover her relatives’ hidden histories after World War II. 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