Acclaimed actor Roger Grunwald explores a world gone mad in The Obligation, his riveting, immersive one-person stage drama. Directed by Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award winner, Nancy Carlin, this celebrated work interweaves the stories of a Polish Jew coming of age during World War II, a half-Jewish lieutenant in Hitler’s army, a high-ranking SS officer, and a Jewish-American comedian (the play’s Chorus)—all brought to life onstage in Grunwald’s tour-de-force performance. The Obligation offers a provocative and timely look into the corrosive moral dilemmas of World War II and the Holocaust: a time when the unimaginable was the norm and survival depended on the right choice, guile, and sheer luck. Presented in partnership with the Holocaust Center of San Francisco’s Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS), The Obligation will perform October 11 – November 4, 2018 at the Potrero Stage, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco. For tickets ($26-$56) and more information, visit theobligation.org o
Seen on stages around the world, Grunwald, a Bay Area native (and Lick alum), has been described as “riveting” by The New York Times, and as having a “Meryl Streep-like ability to shift from one character to another without a trace” by The Washington Informer. A child of an Auschwitz survivor and a refugee, Grunwald’s artistic and personal mission is to use the power of the theater to keep in focus the critical lessons of the Holocaust at a time of growing intolerance and ignorance, with a reported 41% of Americans (and 66% of millennials) not being able to say what Auschwitz was. The Obligation has been praised as “astonishingly relevant” by The Huffington Post and lauded by The San Francisco Examiner as “flawlessly performed and elegantly directed. An unsparing Holocaust remembrance, The Obligation should surely exist in perpetuity.”