*Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian Library,* Sept 15 2026
Karen and I saw Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library on Sept 15, 2026. The central character of the play is Hannah Arendt, a German historicist, philosopher, and political theorist. I've been fascinated with Arendt since seeing a movie about her in 2012. I urge you to see that movie (with the clever title Hannah Arendt) and also a recent PBS American Masters special about her. And if you're up for it, read her New Yorker articles about the trial of Adolf Eichmann or the book she built from it, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.
The play we saw is about Arendt's eight days in jail in 1933. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia about that:
"As a Jew, Arendt was anxious to inform the world of what was happening to her people in 1930–1933. She surrounded herself with Zionist activists, including Kurt Blumenfeld, Martin Buber and Salman Schocken, and started to research antisemitism. Arendt had access to the Prussian State Library for her work on Varnhagen. Blumenfeld's Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland (Zionist Federation of Germany) persuaded her to use this access to obtain evidence of the extent of antisemitism, for a planned speech to the Zionist Congress in Prague. This research was illegal at the time. Her actions led to her being denounced by a librarian for anti-state propaganda, resulting in the arrest of both Arendt and her mother by the Gestapo. They served eight days in prison but her notebooks were in code and could not be deciphered, and she was released by a young, sympathetic arresting officer to await trial."
Arendt is a fascinating subject and this moment in her life is ripe with drama but what a clunker of a play, dull and stagey, lacking in dramatic momentum and direction. Karen thought it felt like the playwright had been given an assignment - - here's the situation, write a three-character play about it. The play felt like a second draft of that assignment. The playwright (Jenny Lyn Bader) made the curious choice to take on a rom-com tone for much for the interactions between Arendt and the guard. It was jarring and completely inappropriate.
The actress playing Arendt (Ella Kaille) was a big part of the problem. She was like a hot shot actress I saw in grad school who I thought was destined for good things. Then I moved to New York and saw what a REAL actress does! Her performance was totally false and reeked of Actor's Choices. Her use of gesture was way to grand and theatrical for an intellectual like Arendt. She seemed to always be stretching her arms out to make a point, often with her fingers splayed. And clearly she thought (or was told) that she'd sound like an Important Person if she spoke in a lower register. It made all of her dialogue seem stilted and false. Karen thought the play would be much better with a better actress in that part. I agree with her but am reminded of a quote by Garson Kanin (I paraphrase): you go through a whole lot of Better before you get to Good.
Karen was bothered that Arendt was portrayed as being kittenish and coy with the guard. I don't doubt that she had to use a bit of this to get what she needed but not as much as we saw, I can't imagine Arendt behaving like that. She was a deeply serious and principled woman, she wouldn't degrade herself like that. Karen thought this was particularly galling because the play was written by and directed by women.
The falseness of Kaille's performance was heightened by the naturalness of the two men, Brett Temple as the prison guard and Daniel Cantor as her lawyer. They were both very good, they inhabited their characters in a realistic and compelling way. Temple, in particular, was very strong, I'd love to see him in something else. Something good.
Here's a little featurette from a production in West Orange, NJ. The actors playing Arendt and the guard are the same as we saw:
You probably know that my pathology is to make lemonade out of every lemon, to always turn my frown upside down. The good part of seeing a lousy show is that it makes truly good work seem more impressive. You have something to compare it to. But it was only $38. And a night out with Karen is always a delight - - turns out our dinner at a nearby Italian sandwich shop was more entertaining than the play.
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