NEW YORK—“Wiesenthal” is the one-man off-Broadway show about the Nazi hunter written by and starring Tom Dugan.
The play takes place in Simon Wiesenthal’s office (the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, Austria) during April 2003. It is the last day before the 93-year-old retired—he died two years later—and he speaks to a group of visitors about his life and career.
While the man who brought 1,100 Nazis to justice was certainly obsessive, Dugan’s script and his acting highlight his dry sense of humor. A frumpy nonagenarian, he pokes fun at the description of himself as a “Jewish James Bond,” pointing out that he drives an old Peugeot, not an Aston Martin. He does claim he has sex appeal.
Wiesenthal rejected the idea of collective guilt and believed people should be held responsible for their own actions.
