Review by James Wilkinson

The Stone – Written by Marius von Mayenburg. Directed by Igor Golyak. Scenographer: David R. Gammons. Costume Design: Nastya Bugaeva. Lighting Design: Jeff Adelberg. Composer: Jakov Jakoulov. Video Designer: Vladimir Gusev. Presented by Arlekin Players Theatre, 368 Hillside Ave., Needham through September 29

For Arlekin Players Theatre’s production of The Stone, the past isn’t just present, it’s also rotting to disintegration before our very eyes. This isn’t a pleasant trip through old times. It’s claustrophobic. It’s uncomfortable. It’s frustrating. (This is all mostly by design). What else would you expect from a play that grapples with the memories of Nazism in contemporary Germany? Plenty of artists across a wide range of disciplines have wrestled with depicting the lead up and aftermath of the Holocaust. There’s no shortage academic writing assessing the success and ethics of those attempts. It’s one of those subjects so enveloping that taking it on threatens to crush you under its weight (Perhaps it’s appropriate then that the play is called The Stone).

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