The Personal and the Historical

The play explores the intricate relationship between personal lives and the forces of history, revealing how individual experiences are shaped by and reflect broader historical currents. The play spans more than fifty years, charting the lives of a single extended Jewish family in Vienna from the turn of the 20th century through the aftermath of the Holocaust, and it demonstrates how personal lives, identities, and relationships are inextricably intertwined with the events and ideologies of their time. The Merz family (and their wider extended family) serves as a microcosm for the Jewish experience in Europe, particularly in Austria, during this tumultuous period. At the play’s beginning, the family enjoys relative prosperity and social standing. Characters like Hermann, the family patriarch, embody the hope that through assimilation, Jews can achieve acceptance and security in Austrian society. Hermann’s efforts to navigate and...