Spoleto Review: In subtle stunner, “Remember This” tackles truth
Repost of Maura's review in Charleston City Paper
On the spare stage of the Sottile Theatre, Jan Karski speaks the truth.
He is, he hastens to explain, an insignificant man. At first blush, that may appear apt enough, given his mild demeanor, his muted wools and knits and the unimposing inflections of his words.
Those words, which are marked with a Polish accent, find their origin in transcripts from Karski himself, a diplomat who became an early messenger of harsh truths during the Holocaust — and who was far from insignificant.
Measured and momentous
They have since been shaped into a one-man play by Derek Goldman and Clark Young. “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski” was created by the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, where Karski was a noted professor.
Since its first staged reading over a decade ago, and through to a 2022 production at Brooklyn’s Theater for a New Audience and subsequent film, actor David Strathairn has portrayed the self-effacing war hero, navigating all iterations to arrive at the nuanced, deeply affecting performance he now delivers at Spoleto Festival USA.
An Academy Award nominee for his portrayal of Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, the actor has regularly honed his craft with historical figures, having also portrayed singular souls including J. Robert Oppenheimer and John Dos Passos.
A role rooted in conscience and craft
In “Remember This,” he trades in restraint, gently, often imperceptibly calibrating the work’s emotional amplitude to enfold us in his story. With ready, credible intimacy, Strathairn gives us a man whose seemingly unremarkable demeanor perhaps helped make possible his remarkable trajectory.
Shooing away any notion of heroism, Karski instead imparts how he came to witness and to honor the truth of what he encountered. He does this on the spare stage, set with two wooden chairs and a table, at times crouching below it or landing atop it. A dramatic assist comes both from the light design — artful rows beaming down on the actor from above or encircling his silhouette on a wall — as well as the sound, by way of evocative strains of organ music or jarring blasts.
Still, the play resides mainly in Strathairn’s exquisite hands. First, he appears as a man, flagging present-day perils, our ability to see them and our responsibility to address them.
Bearing witness, then and now
From there, he segues to the role of Karski, guiding us through his early years as a dutiful son, through to his schooling for diplomacy and involvement in the Polish resistance at the behest of the Jewish Underground. Karski repeatedly cheated death, first at the hands of the invading German army that resulted in a mass grave for his fellow Polish soldiers, and later in a Gestapo prison.
Most significantly, he bore witness to a Jewish ghetto and transportation camp, observing in real time the methodical advance to decimate the Jewish people in Poland — and vowing to serve as “a camera” to record it all.
While the subject matter is as dark as humanity gets, the actor’s gentle build and audience connection serves as a balm. As Karski reflects and illustrates, good and bad are not distinct to nations but to individuals.
The actor and character share a mission to ensure the Holocaust is recounted and remembered, but in one sense, the two are at cross purposes in achieving it. Karski relayed atrocities to a world yet to acknowledge their existence, one in which leaders and others would not accept the possibility of this absence of humanity.
Strathairn’s audience is fully aware of these historic crimes, whether or not we have grasped how they could be so swiftly and expansively carried out in the light of modern day. By so deeply connecting us with this one man, we pace through this inconceivable moment in time, hearts in hand, when a world with an eye on its aggressors still refused to see.
Believe this fine and timely exploration on the nature of truth and what we are and are not willing to believe. With humanity in the balance, it is a distinction that is crucial to remember, from a work as significant as the man who bore witness.
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Remaining performances are 3 p.m. June 7 and 2 p.m. June 8. For tickets: visit spoletousa.org.