Incident at Vichy (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Starring:Rene Auberjonois, Ed Bakey, Lee Bergere, Tom Bower, Harry Davis, Jack Denbo, Bert Freed, Allen Garfield, Ed Gilbert, William Hansen, Joseph Hindy, Richard Jordan, Sean Kelly (II), Curt Lowens, Barry Primus, Andrew Robinson, Harris Yulin, Paul Schumacher
Director: Stacy Keach
Studio: Kultur Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

With his trademark unrelenting honesty and conviction, Arthur Miller examines a major Holocaust issue: the failure to assume responsibility and the consequent moral and social guilt of those who refuse to fight evil. Set in a detention room in Vichy, France during the 1942 German occupation, a number of people have been rounded up and are awaiting interrogation before being sent to concentration camps. It is soon obvious that they are Jews with false papers that will not stand up to close scrutiny. While individual stories flow past the juror's eye, events soon focus on Leduc (Harris Yulin), a psychiatrist, and an Austrian prince (Richard Jordan), who recognizes his guilt of silent complicity and his failure to act responsibly while the Germans rose to power. Miller raises theoretical and ideological arguments and brings up the question of where responsibility lies. Notions of the nature of personal sacrifice, issues of personal blame, and a debate on how much each person is obligated to help in a larger crisis are addressed in this truly important and provocative television event.

Customer Reviews:

"Are you saying all these people are dead? It's inconceivable!".......2005-08-21

Set in a holding room Vichy, France, in 1942, this powerful play by Arthur Miller introduces nine men who have been picked up on suspicion that they are Jews or Jewish sympathizers. Waiting to be questioned are an actor, a waiter, a businessman, a psychoanalyst, a Marxist railroad worker, a gypsy, an ancient Hasid, a fourteen-year-old boy, and an Austrian prince. As they talk and begin to share bits of information, Miller examines the tendency of ordinary men to become immobilized when faced with "an atrocity...that is inconceivable," to refuse to believe that such behavior can possibly happen in a civilized world. At the same time, he also examines those others, the Nazis and their collaborators in France, who serve an ideology, not mankind, those who subordinate themselves so completely to an abstract concept that they believe "there are no persons anymore."

Directed by Stacy Keach, who also wrote the background music, the production features a talented cast, including Rene Auberjonois as the actor, Allen Garfield as the panicked and fatalistic artist, and Andrew Robinson as the German major who has second thoughts about his role. Harris Yulin shines in the very demanding and crucial role of the psychoanalyst Leduc, and his confrontation with Richard Jordan, as the Austrian prince who has failed to act when he had the chance, is heart-stopping. The external action takes place with only one set and virtually no props, focusing the audience's attention on the characters' intense psychological crises, through which Miller examines the tendency of men to believe that the world is essentially rational. Gradually, the truth about the waiting train and its destination emerges, and the sense of horror becomes palpable.

As the men, one by one, disappear from the set, the drama focuses on the psychoanalyst and the Austrian prince, one Jewish and one Christian, one of whom wants desperately to live, and the other of whom has already attempted suicide. Beautifully paced, with a very moving climax, the play is an unusually sophisticated treatment of the Nazi horrors. Miller does not see events purely in black and white, showing instead that everyone creates his own reality to keep from accepting the unthinkable. Written in 1964, while Miller was representing the New York Herald Tribune at the Frankfurt war crimes trials of officials from Auschwitz, this play is Miller's creative reaction to the atrocities he has heard first-hand--and one of his most powerful plays. Mary Whipple

Good Work from the Berkeley Theatre Archive.......2003-03-21

The action of this play takes place in a single room (and a single act), and this version makes no attempt to change this, so don't watch it if you're looking for filmic frills. That said, the set is well-done and the performances are very good, good enough, in fact, that it's hard to point out any particular standouts. (Star Trek fans will note the appearances of Rene Auberjonois and a very young-looking Andrew Robinson, billed as Andy Robinson, as Leduc the actor and the (German) Major.)

The BTA series was originally done for television, so the image quality is not great, but both picture and sound seem to be as good as "new."

Description

Death of a Salesman
"Attention must be paid" to this abbreviated but superb 1966 television adaptation by Arthur Miller of his Pulitzer Prize-winning modern tragedy, starring the incomparable Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock recreating their original Broadway roles as the Lomans. In a career-defining performance, Cobb portrays the suffering Willy Loman--the middle-aged man at the end of his emotional rope--with Dunnock equally impressive as his patient wife, Linda. George Segal and James Farentino play their disillusioned sons, Biff and Happy. Shattering and unforgettable, this landmark television production has been digitally remastered and will endure for all generations to come. "In a word, superb." --New York Times. With Gene Wilder as Bernard.

Incident at Vichy
With his trademark unrelenting honesty and conviction, Arthur Miller examines a major Holocaust issue: the failure to assume responsibility and the consequent moral and social guilt of those who refuse to fight evil. Set in a detention room in Vichy, France during the 1942 German occupation, a number of people have been rounded up and are awaiting interrogation before being sent to concentration camps. It is soon obvious that they are Jews with false papers that will not stand up to close scrutiny. While individual stories flow past the juror's eye, events soon focus on Leduc (Harris Yulin), a psychiatrist, and an Austrian prince (Richard Jordan), who recognizes his guilt of silent complicity and his failure to act responsibly while the Germans rose to power. Miller raises theoretical and ideological arguments and brings up the question of where responsibility lies. Notions of the nature of personal sacrifice, issues of personal blame, and a debate on how much each person is obligated to help in a larger crisis are addressed in this truly important and provocative television event.

An Enemy of the People
Adapted by master playwright Arthur Miller from Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking 1882 play, An Enemy of the People is a scathing indictment of a corrupt society. An idealistic doctor, played by 1966 Emmy-winner James Daly, discovers that the medicinal springs- source of a small Norwegian town's wealth and fame--are in fact poisoned. "Few dramas... clamor with as much present-day social relevance," declared Variety. Veteran Broadway, screen, and television actress Kate Reid plays the doctor's indomitable wife who stands by him in the face of the town's hostility to his findings, as he becomes "an enemy of the people." "Few dramas...clamor with as much present-day social relevance." --Variety

A Memory of Two Mondays
Dramatizing a compacted group of memories passing over several years, Arthur Miller's vivid comedy-drama portrays the nature of life during America's Great Depression. The emphasis is on mood and characterization as Miller draws on his own personal experience to evoke what the 1930s were like for workers to whom a job--any job--was everything. "...a beautiful play superbly performed." --The New York Daily News. With Jack Warden, Harvey Keitel, Dick Van Patten, Estelle Parsons, and Jerry Stiller.

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