Annie Blumberg (Andi Potamkin) and Milton Saltzman (Greg Mullavey) search for the horrific truth in THE SOAP MYTH (photo by Richard Termine)
Black Box Theatre
Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
111 West 46th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through April 22, $50-$60
212-352-3101
www.thesoapmyth.com
www.nationaljewishtheater.com
For more than sixty years, historians and Holocaust survivors have debated whether or not the Nazis actually manufactured soap from the fat of Jewish victims. Inspired by the true story of concentration camp survivor Morris Spitzer, whose one-man crusade to get Holocaust museums to include exhibits on soap made from murdered humans was detailed in a 2000 article in Moment magazine, Jeff Cohen’s The Soap Myth examines the horrific claim in an emotionally moving production running at the Black Box Theatre through April 22 (with no shows during Passover). Greg Mullavey (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) stars as Milton Saltzman, a survivor who is determined to convince Holocaust museum historians and curators Esther Feinman (Dee Pelletier) and Daniel Silver (Donald Corren) that the Nazis indeed made soap from human remains. He just can’t understand why they have changed their minds about something that used to be accepted as fact. Feinman and Silver try to explain to him that because of the growing number of Holocaust deniers, the bar for evidence has been raised dramatically, so there is not enough documentation to support this specific claim anymore. “The question of soap no longer meets our evidentiary criteria,” Feinman tells Saltzman. Thrust into the middle of the battle is Annie Blumberg (the adorable Andi Potamkin), a young writer assigned by a magazine to do an article on Saltzman and soap. “I am just a witness,” Saltzman explains to the journalist, whom he continually says is too nice to take on such an important story. “And soon I will be gone. Soon, all the witnesses will be gone.” Despite some serious structural flaws — Blumberg addresses the audience directly several times, a device that is klunky and awkward; a midpoint transition to Pelletier as a popular Holocaust denier seems to come out of nowhere; and a late embrace descends into treacly melodrama — The Soap Myth does a good job of presenting all sides of the controversy. Cohen (The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller), who was given a copy of the Moment article directly by Spitzer, has written a compelling play that is not just about soap but about the search for the truth and the importance of getting things right as the number of Holocaust witnesses decline. Mullavey gives a powerful performance as Saltzman, a tightly wound old man who sees only his own reality. Corren is also strong as a Borscht Belt comic, Silver, and a series of Nuremberg witnesses who appear behind a scrim on Heather Wolensky’s sparse set. Directed by Arnold Mittelman for the National Jewish Theater, The Soap Myth offers an intriguing look into the speculative nature of history and one man’s furious dedication to setting the record straight.