Irena’s Vow

After reading the play and preparing myself to see Irena’s Vow at Baruch’s Performing Arts Center, I was utterly surprised to see the way it was produced. I mostly anticipated a one-woman show, but all of the unexpected actors played their parts admirably.  The Polish and German accents brought the dramatic plot to life. Because the play takes place during the Holocaust, the actors had to take their parts extremely seriously, yet there were still bits of comic relief throughout the entire play.  One part that was a little overwhelming, however, was a scene in the garden in which the SS Officer Rokita was with a woman from a party.  The graphicness of him pulling down his pants for her was a little unnecessary and a bit shocking for the general melancholy mood of the play. That was just a slight set back, however, and the rest of the play was deeply moving.

            The stage lights and props were minimal but perfectly placed. There was a wooden crate that Irena used as a podium in the first scene, right where she took off her heels in order to transition into a young factory worker in Poland. Tovah Feldshuh pulled of the part of Irena gracefully, changing from the role of someone my grandmother’s age to my age within the first five minutes of the production. She was an intriguing character, having eleven Jew in hiding at the house of a German major, with two more to soon come.

All the character’s reactions to adversity are heartwarming as Irena accepts another refugee to the group and, at the most momentous aspect of the story in my opinion, the birth of Roman, whose life was in question before Irena convinces Ida not to abort him. The tension felt among the castaways throughout the play is made relatable by Gene Silver (Lazar), when he tells Irena that “Its not enough to survive. We have to live…” The plot of Irena’s Vow reminds its audience to cherish life, and the denouement wraps the story up in a significant manner, but I won’t give it away.