there was a little city

synopsis

A young man and woman run from a detail of soldiers and their commandant. They are cornered and in the blackout we hear six gunshots.

". . .Welcome. Tonight we are going to see a play." Announces the playwright Eugene Ionesco. No, it isn't one of his plays. Instead it is a play about his homeland--Romania.

Europe is tensing for war and a young Jewish writer named Stefan Baltazar finds himself in the midst of the Romanian literary elite.

But all is not well in Romania. Fascism and Anti-Semitism are spreading like a virus among the intellectuals and artists that Stefan has long counted his friends.

Sixty years later a student of literature, Nicholas Vivaldi, is searching for a topic for his dissertation. By accident he discovers a journal in his new apartment--it is Stefan's journal.

Nicholas learns more about this writer who he cannot identify--the injustice of the legal measures enacted, the quiet private horrors he witnessed, and the daily bigotry he lived as his friends became his greatest enemies.

Both young men are faced with decisions. For Stefan it is whether he should fight, quietly hide, or flee the homeland he loves. For Nicholas it is coming to terms with his own difficult past and the lies those he respects most have heaped upon him.

The way that the stories end is hopeful--but, as Ionesco reminds us at the end, it is absurd to imagine that Stefan's story truly ended well--and that only we can ensure that the criminality of failing to acknowledge the crimes of the past will not turn into an absurd farce.

characters

• Stefen, a young novelist and literary critic
• Anna, an actress
• Nicholas, a post-graduate student in Literature
• Erin, a post-graduate student in Art History
• Eugene Ionesco, the famous absurdist playwright
• Corneliu Codreanu, the infamous leader of Romania's Iron Guard
• Peter, a painter and friend of Stefen
• Victor, Stefen's mentor, a professor of Philosophy and Literature
• Michael, Nicholas' thesis advisor
• Theodore, Victor's son, a novelist and literary critic
• Nina, a lawyer
• Tudor, owner of a small bookstore, Nina's father
• Constantine, a Romanian army Colonel
• Nora, Constantine's wife, an actress and devoted follower of the Iron Guard
• Various Others, including soldiers, revolutionaries, and Romanian Prime Ministers

Through doubling and tripling the cast of this play can be reduced to nine.

status

This play has received a reading at Portland Center Stage, as part of the PCS PlayGroup. Additionally, it received a reading at the University of Pennsylvania. It is currently being rewritten.