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Playing for Time
Author(s):
Arthur Miller
A death camp is the crucible in which Arthur Miller seeks human definition from the literal and spiritual meltdown. Fania, a musician with a thrilling voice, still young and still with a radiance, is led in with other women to this death camp where their degradation accelerates. What Fania finds so hopeless is that those who run this horror are of the same species: "Human. Like you! Like me!" The immediate necessity is survival and Fania meets Alma, who has been reprieved from the gas chamber because she's the niece of the great composer Gustav Mahler and because she has formed a small orchestra among the women to play music for their jailers. "There is life or death in this place," Alma tells Fania. "There is no room for anything else whatever. We must play to please them." Fania, who has joined the orchestra, replies, "I prefer to think I am saving my life rather than trying to please the S.S." Then Alma expresses their dilemma with, "You think you can do one without the other?" Another young woman tries to justify her utter capitulation for trifles saying, "I'm not going to live to get out of here anyway." "But if you do?" Fania asks, "What if you live?" With Allied forces approaching, the killing is increased and the physical and emotional pressure on the few left is shattering. "We know a little something about the human race we didn't know before," Fania says, "And it is not good news." Looking out at the yellow smoke rising from the oven smokestacks, Fania is approached by a perhaps deranged, perhaps very wise prisoner who whispers a one-word message..."Live." And the meltdown is not total. Area staging.
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| Genre(s): | Not Available | | Time Period(s): | Not Available | | Play Type: | Play | | Runtime: | 84 minutes | | Acts: | Not Available | | Set Complexity: | Not Available | | Set Information: | Not Available | | Year First Published: | Not Available | | Total Characters: | 22 | | Male Characters: | 4 | | Female Characters: | 18 | | Androgynous Characters: | 0 | | Minimum Cast: | Not Available | | Maximum Cast: | Not Available | | Cost: |
$60.00 /per performance
Royalty/cost information prone to change.
Please check with the publisher for the most accurate information. | | Publisher: | Dramatic Publishing
Click on the publisher's name above for additional information, including updated prices. | | ISBN: | null
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