Tense psychological drama ‘Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library’ returns to Luna Stage

VALERIE TERRANOVA

Brett Temple and Ella Dershowitz co-star in “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” at Luna Stage in West Orange, through Nov. 9.

In 1963, the philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt — German-born but then living in The United States — published a book that stemmed from her coverage of the post-World War II trial of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann. It was titled “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.” And the idea of the banality of evil — basically, that evil acts can be committed for banal reasons such as “just following orders” — started to enter the public consciousness.

Jenny Lyn Bader’s play “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library,” set in Berlin in 1933 — and currently being produced at Luna Stage in West Orange, with direction by Luna’s artistic director, Ari Laura Kreith — does not include the phrase. But you can practically feel it beginning to germinate in the mind of Hannah — the play’s main character, based on Arendt. (Stern was the last name of her husband at the time; they divorced in 1937.)

This tense, absorbing play is about something that really happened to Hannah. (I’ll refer to her by her first name in this review, to avoid confusion.) She was imprisoned for eight days by the Gestapo, who suspected she was helping Zionists spread information to other countries about the rise in anti-Semitism in Germany.

The play — which premiered at Luna Stage in 2019 and has been produced since then off-Broadway, and in Massachusetts — mainly consists of Hannah (played by Ella Dershowitz) being interrogated, in her cell, by baby-faced Gestapo officer Karl (Brett Temple). The only other character is a Zionist lawyer, Erich (Drew Hirshfield), who visits Hannah and offers his help, though she is wary of him.

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Drew Hirshfield and Ella Dershowitz in “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.”

Few attending the play will be experts on Arendt. But most will, at least, know that she managed to survive World War II. So we know that she is not going to stay imprisoned forever and rot in her jail cell, as she is afraid could happen. The play is basically a kind of intellectual cat-and-mouse game: How is Hannah going to convince Karl to let her go?

Dershowitz does a great job of suggesting that even when sitting still, in the isolation of a jail cell, Hannah is always thinking feverishly — figuring what she should say, and how she can say it, to manipulate her captor. Her mental prowess is her only weapon, and she is depending on it for her survival.

That Karl can possibly be manipulated comes as a bit of a surprise, given that this is a story of Nazi Germany. But remember, this is happening in 1933, not 1942. Germany is a dangerous place for a Jew like Hannah, but things are not as bad as they will later get.

Hannah’s cell (scenic design is by Lauren Helpern) may be drab, but it is reasonably clean and spacious, and its wooden desk and chairs look like they could have come from a fashionable home, or an antique store. Karl is cold and brusque at times, and occasionally speaks to Hannah harshly. But for the most part, he is mild-mannered, and open to the possibility that Hannah may be innocent.

Karl has just been transferred from the Gestapo’s criminal police department to its political police department and, surprisingly, lets Hannah know that he is unsure of himself, in his new role.

He brings her coffee on a silver tray — a touch of civility that seems shockingly out of place in this setting — and politely asks, “How do you take it?” After she has sipped some of it, he asks her if she likes it, assuring her that she can be truthful. When she tells him it is “terrible,” he responds, “Sorry to hear it.”

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Brett Temple in “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.”

Hannah strives to convince him that she is a harmless intellectual, with no interest in political activism. When he tells her he is glad that she told him the coffee was terrible, because it means she is answering his questions truthfully, she responds, “It would not occur to me to answer them any other way.”

And when he questions her about her activities at the Prussian State Library — her presence in certain rooms, and the fact that she may have looked at certain books, are critical pieces of evidence for the crime she is being accused of — she responds that she was just wandering around.

“I see how that might seem strange to many people, and even suspicious to the police,” she says. “But I love to wander: that feeling that you don’t know what you might discover next. Opening books in different rooms and setting them back on their shelves, knowing you can return to them as you explore.”

I didn’t know, watching the play, if the real-life Hannah was guilty of the crimes she was accused of. (I researched it later, and found out, though that is not really relevant here.) Bader doesn’t offer a definitive answer in the play, leaving open two possibilities: (1) Hannah could be totally innocent or (2) Hannah could be guilty of a crime — though she didn’t do anything wrong, morally — and lying.

But in a way, “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” is really more about Karl. We know that he — like any other Gestapo officer — will turn more monstrous, in the years to come. But does he still have enough humanity, at this early point in this wretched chapter of world history, to believe that Hannah could be telling he truth? Or at least show some mercy to her?

And that is where the “banality of evil” concept comes in. Karl may be more banal than evil, in 1933. But we know that his slide — just like Germany’s slide — has begun. And that underlying, unspoken truth is part of this politically important play’s power.

Luna Stage in West Orange will present “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” through Nov. 9. Visit lunastage.org.
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