April 16 – May 29, 1999
The Merchant of Auschwitz adaptation by Brian Freeland based on William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The LIDA Project (Denver, CO)
Direction / Text / Lighting Design

A young jewish student, captured in a time of madness, is caught with a copy of The Merchant of Venice. What follows is a debate acted out through the text of one of the most controversial plays of our time.

“In the winter of 1943 I was a member of a company which performed before the SS guards at the extermination camp of Auschwitz. We actors received prodigal hospitality and were waited on by prisoners—long columns of whom we saw with our very eyes. We were greatly astonished at their wearing only striped prison smocks in the middle of winter.”
– Dieter Borsche, German film star

Awards
Best Experimental Theatre Production, Westword
Best New Play (Brian Freeland), Denver Drama Critics Circle Award Nomination

Media Coverage
Flesh Wounds, Westword

* World Premiere