It is 1940, and Kurt has arrived with his wife Sara Müller (Lise Bruneau), who is David’s beloved sister, and their three children. Stanley Photography.ĭavid’s mother Fanny Farrelly (Marsha Mason) is the wealthy widow whose sumptuous country estate near DC the play takes place in. Ethan Miller, Helen Hedman, Lise Bruneau, Andrew Long and Lucy Breedlove in Watch on the Rhine at Arena Stage. The earliest and clearest evidence that Watch on the Rhine was landing with contemporary relevance came in an exchange between the young lawyer David Farrelly (Thomas Keegan) and the antifascist activist Kurt Müller (Andrew Long). Judging from audience response on opening night, the answer is yes. Does Lillian Hellman’s principled script-now in a praiseworthy production on the waterfront at Arena Stage-stand the test of time? Does it warrant viewing, in other words, as a Watch on the Potomac? Whatever this play meant to Broadway audiences when it debuted in 1941, just prior to America’s entry into a war of resistance to fascism abroad, what matters now is what it means to audiences just as America has entered a war of resistance to fascism here at home.
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