Defying Hitler Runs in May as Part of Brits Off-Bway Fest

The 2006 Brits Off Broadway festival will welcome the NY premiere of the
critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Sebastian Haffner's memoir Defying Hitler, which will begin previews at 59E59 Theaters on Tuesday, May 2nd through a limited engagement through Sunday, May 21st; the show will open on May 7th at 6 PM.

Adapted from Haffner's memoirs, performed by Rupert Wickham, and directed by Peter Symonds, the show was developed at London's Royal National Theatre, where it was performed as a companion piece to Michael Frayn's award-winning Democracy.

"Defying Hitler is an absorbing and chilling adaptation of the candid, witty and moving memoirs of Sebastian Haffner, a young German growing up in Berlin between the two world wars. Haffner paints a terrifying picture of the fatal complacency of German bourgeois society in the face of the Nazi threat, and of the fragility of civilization when faced with a ruthless, uncompromising opponent," state press notes.

A highly respected German journalist, historian and political commentator, Haffner wrote Defying Hitler as his (unfinished) memoir of life from 1914-1933, before his well-known exile in England in 1939. Discovered by his son after his death in 1999, it was published in the US and UK in 2002 to wide critical acclaim.

Wickham has performed as Hamlet at Greenwich Theatre; Iago in Othello at The Cochrane Theatre; Captain Gower in Henry V, Nicholas Hytner's inaugural production as Artistic Director of The Royal National Theatre; The Colonel in the original cast of Journey's End (Comedy Theatre), soon to be seen on Broadway; and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Dame Judi Dench at Regent's Park. Film and television credits include: The Bourne Identity, Band Of Brothers, A Dance To The Music Of Time, The Cinder Path, and Apollo rocket launcher Kurt Debus in the BBC and National Geographic Channel's acclaimed Spacerace.

The performance schedule is Tuesday and Thursday at 9 PM; Wednesday and Friday at 7 PM; Saturday at 4 PM and 9 PM; Sunday at 2 PM and 6 PM. Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 members) and are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com. For more information, visit www.59E59.org.