Staging an important piece of history

It was on April 29 that Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in his underground bunker. The play Emil's Enemies intends to touch the lives of great personalities who have contributed to human thought in a demanding historical context. Theatre lovers can expect a captivating performance from an excellent set of committed actors. The costumes and the set will recreate Nazi Germany in Bangalore Little Theatre's production that holds a lot of promise.

The play is directed by Prof. Vijay Padaki, founder member of Bengaluru's senior-most theatre personalities. Playwright Prof. Douglas Huff quotes, “Many years ago, I was approached by an American theatre director who asked to write a play about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the German resistance to the Nazis during World War II. I had declined the offer at the time, but kept thinking about the possibility. I had grown up hearing about WWII and frankly did not want to hear more, but the thought of Bonhoeffer would not fade, and so I started reading about his life, theology, and work in the resistance, and couldn't let him go. The story was simply too important.”

He says that the 95 minutes play describes happenings in the Bonhoeffer family, dragged into plans of assassinating Hitler. Talking of the challenges that came their way, Douglas adds, “The challenge was to reduce the historical events into a play, while remaining true to the facts. I read all of Bonhoeffer's writings, biographies and researched German Military Intelligence (where Bonhoeffer worked), and the accounts of their many attempts to assassinate Hitler and general historical works on the war in Germany.”

Playwright Douglas Huff who has known Vijay Padaki for 15 years feels he is a prolific playwright who has written many plays. “Vijay is a consummate theatre professional with an international reputation as a writer and director, and I'm honored to have him direct my play. Since I haven't yet seen Vijay’s take on Emil’s Enemies, I can’t say anything about his interpretation of the play, but I can assure I’m looking forward to it immensely. Emil was the code name given to Hitler by the German underground. Many senior military officers were part of the underground. They were convinced that the reign of the Fuhrer was disastrous, and he had to be eliminated. There were about 30 assassination attempts and all of them failed.”

The cast includes actors Abhishek S, Sanjeev Gadre, Akash Athwani, Deepak Mote, Archana Kariappa, Shatarupa Bhattacharya, Musten Jiruwala, Chitra B, Shivani Shah, Pranav Verma, Shubham Srivastava, Aditya Iyengar, Subodh Subrahmanya and Vijay Sharma who are from different walks of life.

Vijay Sharma who plays Hans von Dohnanyi, a Major in German Military Intelligence says, “My character was part of the resistance movement against the regime and was instrumental in getting Deitrich Bonhoeffer more actively involved in the resistance. He plotted many attempts to assassinate Hitler; all of them of course failed. On Hitler's orders, in 1945, he was condemned to death and executed just weeks before Hitler’s suicide and Germany's surrender.”

— Emil’s Enemies will be stagd at ADA RangaMandira, April 29, 7.30pm, April 30, 3.30pm and 7.30pm, May 1, 3.30pm and 7.30pm and Alliance Francaise, May 7, 3.30pm and 7.30pm and May 8, 3.30pm and 7.30pm.