Irena’s Vow Review

What I thought to be a one-person play, was, in fact, not. In Dan Gordon’s new play, “Irena’s Vow”, Irena retells the true story of her hiding 12, or rather, 13, lives in the cellar of a German major’s house, as well as endangering her own. Centered around life and death, she devises a plan to help them and lives to tell the story. At first exposed to the script, I thought Irena would be playing the voices of several different characters, with photographs projected on the panel behind her, but it was a one-person play in that she retold her story through herself, with the help of the supporting cast invented from her memories.

The play opens as Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Irena, makes a speech directed toward students she refers to as her “darling children”. Irena Gut Opdyke was a nursing student in Poland during the German invasion. She was forced to work in a German munitions factory, where she met Major Rugemer who transferred her to kitchen and laundry duties. There, she meets the 12 people she vows to save. Major Rugemer gives Irena the job of housekeeper for his villa and unknowingly, his house becomes the perfect hideout for the Jews. Will her disguise as the innocent housekeeper keep up until she successfully finds an escape tunnel for her friends? From then on, Irena constantly fears being caught and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats with her close-calls.

Gordon subtly adds comedy, which can be seen when Irena mumbles dry humorous statements under her breath. The plot complicates when Ida becomes pregnant and an additional life needs to be saved. While the Jews think of the pregnancy as life-threatening, as it is, Irena thinks otherwise; she encourages Ida to give birth to the baby. For added comedy, while Ida shrieks in agony during labor, Irena plays Wagner’s music to cover up the cries so as not to let Rugemer find out about her dark secret.

Although the back panels served as a link to real historic photos, it served more as a distraction. My eyes were directed toward the display of changing photographs and not at where they should’ve been aiming at – what the cast was doing.
Schultz, the butler who knows about Irena’s secret, helps, but refuses to say that he knows anything. Schultz was the perfect butler I had in mind when I read the script beforehand. Rokita, however, seemed more girly than manly in the play. After reading the script, I expected Rokita to be more domineering and a true Nazi but I saw otherwise.

Although Feldshuh’s facial contortions were exaggerated and seemed unreal at times, she was a powerful figure who adroitly took dramatic pauses when needed and sharp intakes of breath to emphasize her words. As Irena’s story unfolds, the audience is captivated and drawn into the fear of hiding victims of the genocide. Not only was she scared, but the audience was too.