German couple's letters inspire playwright's 'Journey'
In 1991, Marc P. Smith, cofounder of the Worcester Foothills Theatre Company, was poking around a Northampton bookstore when he found a galley proof of a book about to be released: "Letters to Freya: 1939-1945," by Helmuth James Graf von Moltke.
"It was subtitled, 'A Young German Aristocrat Writes to His Wife,' " says Smith. "I was interested in that period and asked, 'OK, what is a young German aristocrat doing in that atmosphere?' I read the letters and realized that the guy was at the epicenter of the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany."
So Smith, who has long had an interest in Hitler's machinations and in German-Jewish reconciliation, sniffed around and found out that the wife, Freya von Moltke, is alive -- she's 93 -- and lives in Norwich, Vt.
Smith has turned the story of their relationship and their work into a play, "A Journey to Kreisau," which will have staged readings on Monday at the Foothills Theatre, and Tuesday at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. A third reading will take place at Smith College in Northampton in February.
As Smith started reading other books on Helmuth James, he became more awed by the extent of the German Protestant's commitment to opposing Nazism. The couple's estate, Kreisau, in Silesia became a center for the underground to establish a post-war democratic Germany.
But after an assassination plot against Hitler failed, family, friends, and acquaintances of those involved were rounded up. Helmuth James was not involved in the plot, but some of his friends were. He was arrested in 1944 and wrote some of the letters to Freya while in prison. A sympathetic pastor smuggled them to Freya, who hid them in beehives.
Helmuth James was executed by the Gestapo in 1945. Freya and their two sons got out of the country and ended up in Vermont. She aided Smith on his quest to make their story known, giving him access to family letters, memoirs, diaries, and books, and serving as consultant.
"Initially it was going to be a play, then I realized it was going to be too epic, so it should be maybe a TV series," says Smith. "I went to California last year, and three people I know there told me, don't come out with a movie script, do a play or a book first."
So he spent four months writing this play, which he says is closer to docudrama rather than a conventional play. The five actors in the reading, Bill Mootos, Jerry Bisantz, Barbara Reierson Guertin, Sheila Stasack, and Bill Taylor, play multiple roles.
Freya von Moltke will attend the reading at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Smith says he's gotten a favorable response from the German consulate, the Goethe-Institut, B'nai B'rith, and the American Jewish Committee.
Helmuth James' parents were Christian Scientists and spent time in Boston helping translate Mary Baker Eddy's textbook, "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," into German.
Monday at Worcester Foothills Theatre, Tuesday at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave. Call 508-757-1472 or visit www.bluepumpkinproductions.com
Notes
Tickets for the pre-Broadway engagement of "Sweet Charity," starring Christina Applegate and Denis O'Hare, go on sale Sunday at 10 a.m. The show runs March 18-27 at the Colonial Theatre. (Tickets: 617-931-2787 and at the box office, 106 Boylston St.) . . . The Wang Center for the Performing Arts presents the latest staged reading in its "American Voices: Drama, Dialogue, Downtown" series, Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour," at the Shubert Theatre on Monday. It features Broadway, film, and television actress Kerry O'Malley. (Tickets: 800-447-7400, www.wangcenter.org, or at the box office, 265 Tremont St.) . . . The Gloucester Stage Company has purchased the building it has rented from Gorton's Inc. for the last 18 years for $750,000.
Catherine Foster can be reached at foster@globe.com
