The Blue Light

There?s something paradoxically disturbing and satisfying about a play like The Blue Light that leaves you with as many questions as answers. It?s the story of Leni Riefenstahl, a talented and innovative filmmaker who rubbed shoulders with Hitler and Goebbels and made films used as propaganda for the Nazi cause. Pamela Halstead does a remarkable job of playing Riefenstahl as both the young and ambitious dancer/actress/filmmaker and the elderly and unrepentant woman struggling to cast off the shadows of her past. The rapid cuts between Riefenstahl?s past and present-day scenes with a fictitious Hollywood executive (ably played by Kate Lavender) as well as the physical transposing of the scene after intermission cleverly give this play a cinematic feel. And while it raises questions about Riefenstahl?s culpability and the role of art in society it never presumes to give the answers, making this the first must-see play of 2010. ?Kate Watson (Phone 499-6252 for tickets.)