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Elie Wiesel is a polemic figure who has bitterly disappointed many Jewish people because of his hypocritical silence on the Palestinian question. I tend to view him as someone so traumatized by his experiences that he is unable to be entirely objective. After nearly 2000 years of pogroms, the Jews reached the zenith of suffering in the Holocaust, which caused such world wide outrage and sympathy, that they finally were able to attain a home of their own. Thus, for many Jewish people, Israel is the justification and the answer for all their suffering. It's painful to criticize its creation and admit that their recovery came at the suffering of others. I also believe that many Jewish people continue to be haunted by the Holocaust and genuinely consider themselves persecuted, despite the fact that they are now being supported by the most powerful country in the world. Nothing can ever make them feel secure again, or wanted. The pain of Wiesel's experience during the Holocaust is ample in The Trial of God, which he wrote in 1979. In fact, the play was inspired by an incident that Wiesel witnessed in Auschwitz. Wiesel however, has set his play in the 1600s, after a pogrom in which the entire Jewish population was massacred save the innkeeper and his daughter, who was driven crazy from the horrific event. Unaware of this fact, three Purim minstrels wander into the town to put on a Purim pageant. Trying to ignore the threat of another pogrom, the innkeeper suggests that they celebrate Purim by putting God on trial for his cruelty and indifference. The play brilliantly weaves together elements of the Biblical story of Job's ordeal with a study of the conflicting waves of pain, anger, guilt and uncertainty felt by survivors of great trauma. The Job character, Berish, struggles with his relationship to God -- he is at once resentful of his former firm belief, yet unable to renounce his faith even on point of death. This outrage of having been deceived by God is central to the all the characters in the play. In a table-turning trick, they have put God on trial out of the bitter feeling that God has put them on trial. The play is a great challenge even for seasoned actors, and the young actors in Stone Soup's production of The Trial of God are unable to dredge up the pain demanded by their roles. The entire cast is too earnest, fresh-faced and, for the most part, miscast. Director Nadine Friedman would have done well to have found a few older actors to give the play gravity. Marsha Martinez, as the daughter who has been driven mad, is the only one who even attempts to act a traumatized character, although Dondrie Burnham as Mendel approaches her part with pleasing honesty. A Jewish sense of absurdity is also sorely missing. But perhaps the greatest shortcoming in Stone Soup's production is that it fails to convincingly create the reality of a lynch mob salivating not too far off, robbing the play of its urgency and context. Is this indicative of a gap in the understanding of educated Americans? For better or worse, Bush's policies abroad may well give everyone in America a better grasp of the anguish felt by Wiesel's characters. Pretty soon, we may all know exactly what it feels like to be hated and hunted. Until then, Stone Soup would do well in finding a play that better suits its young temperament, or acquiring company members who can more profoundly express grief and loss. Victoria Linchon has been involved in downtown New York City theater for nearly 20 years as an actress, writer and theater producer. Her most recent play, "Rite of Return," premiered at Theater for the New City in April 2004.
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