THE STORY: Recruited by the Nazis, a group of Hungarian Jews are promised they will live longer if they assist in the extermination of other Jewish prisoners. As if their lives in the concentration camp weren’t already a living hell, these men find that assisting the Nazis in the extermination of other Jews has turned them into the living dead. Realizing they too will soon be exterminated, the group plans to blow up the crematoria with smuggled explosives, and then try to escape. But as they set their plan in motion and plant the explosives, they make a horrific discovery: While removing corpses from a gas chamber, they find a young woman who barely survived the gas. While debating whether to put her out of her misery, or smuggle her to another camp where she may live, they are caught. As the Nazis interrogate them, the girl is killed, and ultimately all but one of the Sonderkommando are put to death. The lone survivor is left to ponder his actions and the value of life for the rest of his days.
Based on actual events during World War II, this truly searing play tells the story of the Sonderkommando, a small group of Hungarian Jews imprisoned at Auchwitz/Birkenau.
“Most work on this subject, alas, is deplorably simple minded and predictable. THE GREY ZONE is an honorable exception.” —New York Daily News.
“…it takes courage to write poetry, fiction, or drama about this hardest of subjects. It is to [the author’s] considerable credit that his terse, spartan play comes very close to total success.” —New York Magazine.
