In 1937, the Nazi Party was already in power. Hitler had reoccupied the Rhineland and broken the Treaty of Versailles. The Luftwaffe had been formed. Jews were banned from the military. The Nuremburg Laws had already gone into effect. In this environment German playwright Ödön von Horváth wrote Judgment Day.
The setting is a train station in a very small village somewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The time is 1933. The local stationmaster, Herr Hudetz, rigorously runs this station like clockwork. A terrible accident occurs leading to the death of eighteen people. The play quickly gets to this event. What follows is an expose on mob mentality. The timeliness of this revival is evident.
The townspeople are nasty gossips. Rumors get started and become facts. The flirtatious innkeeper’s daughter Anna tells Hudetz, “They say you’re not a man.” He asks, “Who says that?” She replies, “The whole town.” Hudetz lives on the upper floor of the station with his wife. She is thirteen years older and appears to be a jealous, barking shrew.
Frau Liemgruber is waiting for a train which is 45 minutes late. She has a conversation with a salesman. “I hate people,” she says. He understands. “For all I care,” she adds, “the whole town could drop dead.” The mood of this play is bitter and angry. As a result, the dialogue is dark and the people are largely unlikable. They cast aspersions. They pass judgments.
After the tragedy, the stationmaster admits that he doesn’t want to live anymore. “I still hear the screams.” Anna offers a suggestion. “Maybe you have to do something worse so that you will be punished.” Citizens of this town are fickle. They defend, support and love one minute and cruelly discard and condemn the next. Like many of the mobs in America today, all of this judgment occurs without facts. Even when things are briefly going well, the barmaid has some sage advice. “Don’t be too noble or people will turn on you again.”
The play itself is excellent. Mr. von Horváth created a fascinating tale of guilt and a harsh criticism of his contemporaries. This production is housed in the cavernous Park Avenue Armory. Paul Steinberg’s sets are nothing short of gigantic, fashioned out of plywood. They are moved around the room with giant lifts. Scene changes are cumbersome and sap all energy from the room. Occasionally, cast members run around the movement to enact mob mentality, to distract attention or to kill time depending on your judgment.
The lighting design by Mimi Jordan Sherin is sensational, however. Trains whiz by. The night sky ominously frames the giant trees. Shadows portend danger. Unfortunately, the direction by Richard Jones (The Hairy Ape) is very uneven. This little play is lost amidst the need to fill the voluminous space.
What’s even worse is the lack of consistency in the actor’s presentations. The barmaid (Jeena Yi) is oddly contemporary. Luke Kirby (Emmy Winner for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) plays the stationmaster in a rigidly precise way. I enjoyed the performance immensely but the style contrasted so obviously with everyone else, especially his freewheeling wife Frau Hudetz (a fine Alyssa Bresnahan). Her unpopular brother Alfons is played by Henry Stram and his discomfort and acquiescence registers beautifully.
Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie) nailed the tone perfectly as Frau Liemgruber, the town’s busiest of busybodies. Her scathing tongue is utterly detestable. Perfecting the group think mentality and using gossip to entertain herself and destroy others is her pastime. I did not feel the same way about Anna, the flirty girl at the center of the story. Susannah Perkins conveyed pretty and desirable. She did not, however, convincingly project a woman that is manipulative enough to justify her actions.
Judgment Day is a very fine play. With a critical eye, Ödön von Horváth sheds a bold spotlight on the culpability of a village. Maybe in another one hundred years the world will understand how the culpability of a now morally bankrupt Republican Party will be judged. As I write this, the House of Representatives is voting on impeachment. Let’s watch the mobs and remain bemused.