Following a pretty successful run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last winter, the heartbreaking Off-Broadway production Our Class is gearing up for a premiere in Manhattan at Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater at 136 East 13th Street by Third Avenue in the East Village.
The 2009 play by Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek is directed by Igor Golyak and is inspired by the 1941 pogrom that happened in the Polish town of Jedwabne during World War II, when the local Jews were forced to assemble in the town’s square as their non-Jewish neighbors tortured them before marching them to a barn that they then set on fire. Although estimates vary, between 300 and 2,000 Jews were reportedly killed on that day.
Given the events of October 7 and the current state of affairs when it comes to antisemitism on a global scale, Our Class already feels imbued with added resonance, clearly indirectly commenting on much more than the atrocious episode at the center of the storyline.
Following their time on the stage of Our Class from September 12 to November 3, the cast of the production will take over roles in another Golyak show, this one an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
This second play will also be mounted at Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater, premiering on November 22 and running through December 22. It will be the first time that this specific adaptation will be performed in New York.
Tickets to both shows are currently on sale right here.
