About the Book:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

A Terrible Truth is an anthology in two separate volumes collecting plays dealing with the Holocaust. We look to the theatre to illuminate, to challenge, and to bring spiritual understanding and consolation. Theatre, at its best, embraces, enlightens, entertains, and makes us question how we live and die. The plays in this anthology share a common thread, the triumph of theatre to make us ask questions. To restore meaning and bring insight to the memory of a terrible truth.

A Terrible Truth, Volume II: Anthology of Holocaust Drama includes:

Good by the UK playwright C.P. Taylor. How does a good man turn toward the unthinkable? A German novelist and university professor must rationalize his decision to join the Nazi Party and participate in its destructive practices and face the effects these choices have on his friendship with a Jewish physician. In this expressionistic play with music, C.P. Taylor poses questions that remain all too familiar in today's political landscape. Especially recommended for school and contest use. (Premiered in 1981 at the Donmar Warehouse in London; Cast: 4 female, 6 male)

None is Too Many by the Canadian playwright Jason Sherman chronicles the attitude of Canadian government and the impact of Canada's anti-Semitic immigration policies toward Jewish refugees before, during and after the Second World War. (Premiered in 1997 at Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg; Cast: 1 female, 5 male)

Playing for Time by the legendary American playwright Arthur Miller. A searing drama of the Holocaust – the remarkable, true story of how singer Fania Fénelon and a group of women created the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra. This moving play deals with the complicated struggles of the women fighting for survival by playing to members of the SS, all the while knowing the fates of their fellow prisoners. As long as the makeshift orchestra continues to find favour, its members will be spared the gas chambers. They are, quite literally, playing for time. (Originally filmed for CBS television in 1980, and adapted for the stage by Miller himself, it premiered in 1985 at 1-Act Theatre in San Francisco; Cast: 17 female, 5 male, plus extras)

Still the Night by the Canadian playwright Theresa Tova. A celebration of survival – the story of two young women who were separated from their parents during Word War II, and wander through Poland, pretending not to be Jewish. (Premiered in 1996 at Tapestry Music Theatre in Toronto; Cast: 2 female, 3 musicians)

The Trials of John Demjanjuk by the Canadian playwright Jonathan Garfinkel, music by Allen Cole. In 1987 John Demjanjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka and brought to trial. In 1988 he was sentenced to hang, but in 1993, acquitted. In 2002 his American citizenship was revoked – for the second time. Was he guilty? And of what exactly? The Trials of John Demjanjuk probes the nature of guilt and the need for retribution as the circus of the public trial transforms the courtroom into cabaret, lawyers into Nazis, and survivors into singing emcees. (Premiered in 2004 at the Noman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver; Cast: 1 female, 5 male)

About the Editor:

Irene N. Watts is a German-born Canadian writer and educator. She studied at University College Cardiff and arrived in Canada in 1968. Since 1977, she has been a resident of B.C. She is the founding director of Citadel Wheels and Wings, Alberta and Neptune Theatre Company, Nova Scotia. She served as the program director of the first International Vancouver Children's Festival. The author of 11 plays for young people, she has taught drama and creative writing in all parts of Canada.