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SHELTERED

 Sheltered now on stage atTheater J, seems so real.  That is because it is. Inspired by the true story of an American Jewish couple who rescued  Austrian Jewish children in 1939 and placed them with American families,  the playwright Alix Sobler explores possible emotions and conflicts that might have gone on  behind the scenes of their daring humanitarian effort
Act 1. Leonard Kirsch (David Schlumpf) and  his wife Evelyn (Erin Weaver) invite  the Blooms, Martin (Alexander Strain) and Roberta (Kimberly Gilbert) to dinner at their lovely home in Providence, RI.  They have not seen each other in a long time, but the Kirsches need a 40th family to agree to sponsor a child.
What is revealed over the evening  are strong emotions  — not only of vastly differing viewpoints on involvement of the events in Europe, but also of the violence within their domestic life.  
The living room has now been reconfigured for Act 2 as a hotel room in Vienna.   The Kirsches  are conflicted over choices of which children out of so many they have interviewed who would or should be selected.  They are interrupted by an Austrian woman, Hani Mueller (McLean Fletcher)  who has  come to ask that her son be taken off the list.
Evelyn is the one who alone with Roberta had opened the flood of violent emotions in the Blooms marriage. Now, she asks to be alone with Hani Mueller to reveal her fears at sending her child away.   
What Evelyn knows, and we too, is that this child is to be placed with the Blooms.    What the Kirsches suspect and what we know, is that, is what the next 6 years will bring to Austria. And what no one can know, is how it will be for any of them.
Erin Weaver’s role of Evelyn is pivotal in this intense and wrenching drama,  as she reaches the deepest pains and fears of both women in this memorable drama. 
The  stage is one that could well have been for a nostalgic play, evoking an underlying sense of regret and woe for all that is unfolding on the world stage.  

At Theatre J, Washington, DC to Feb. 2, 2020.

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