Torn Apart By History: Leopoldstadt at Main Street Theater

Name: Torn Apart By History: Leopoldstadt at Main Street Theater
Start: 2026-03-20T09:30:00+00:00
Location: Houston, TX

About This Event

The play takes place in one room in Vienna. The time span: more than 50 years as we look at the fortunes of Hermann Merz and his extended family whose comfort and prosperity wax and wane through two world wars and the rise of the Nazis. The play is Leopoldstadt by the late playwright Tom Stoppard which premiered in London in January 2020. The last play he wrote, it tells the semi-autobiographical story of a Jewish family, living in Vienna, some of whom believe that by assimilating they will protect themselves from prejudice and harm. In 2023 it won the Tony award for Best Play as well as three other Tony awards. It was the fifth time Stoppard won a Tony Best Play Award more than any other playwright in that category. Actor/playwright Dain Geist plays the central figure of Hermann Merz, the family’s patriarch. This is not his first Stoppard play. He did Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead when he was in college and was part of the massive cast assembled to do the three part Coast of Utopia that Main Street mounted in 2012. In Leopoldstadt we first see the family it is Christmas Day 1899 and the Merzes and another Jewish family, the Jakoboviczes are sitting down to the holiday dinner. “It is essentially the joining of two different Jewish families in Vienna,” Geist says. “You have the Mertz family which comes from textile manufacturing and is incredibly wealthy and you have the Jakoboviczes which is a trio of siblings. “My character very much believes in assimilation and does become a Christian. He is not a Zionist and doesn’t believe in the necessity of a Jewish home. And feels like the best way for us to continue on to survive is to complete integration.” “Then you have my brother-in-law [Ludwig] who has the opposite view. His take on it is that a Jew cannot stop being a Jew and cannot ever stop being perceived as a Jew. That all these other cultures, Druids, Zoroastrianists , all got assimilated. But this one group, not so much, For him it is very much the preservation of Jewish culture and the necessity of a place where Jews can live free from harm.” They debate Theodor Herzl’s pamphlets arguing for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The next time jump is to the 1920s, after WWI and Austria is part of the German reparations plan, Geist says. “Austria’s economy has collapsed. The family is struggling a little bit more to get by.” Asked how Vienna went from a cultured city to a place that welcomed the German army, Geist says, “The answer to that is: it was crushed. Out of that came a lot of pain and resentment which ultimately boiled into fascism.” “My character is sort of the financial backbone of the family. As the play goes on you get to see this family contract both financially and also by the end, in numbers.” The room itself, he says, becomes more dilapidated as the decades pass. While Geist said he would not describe Leopoldstadt as a comedy he says “Stoppard is very, very good at infusing a little bit of humor. It can’t just be a seriously depressing slog. There’s at least one scene which I find hysterical. There are moments that are funny and should be.” Main Street Theater, now celebrating its 50th year and known for taking on the works of Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia), is doing only the third U. S. production of Leopoldstadt since its world premiere in London in 2020. The play runs about two and a half hours and unlike some other productions, it will have an intermission. In addition to Geist, the cast includes Austin Atencio, Terri Branda, James Cardwell, Nadia Diamond, Shannon Emerick, Kara Greenberg, Joel Grothe, Hannah Hall, Laura Kaldis, Ian Lewis, Clara Marsh and Meg Rodgers, Karen Ross, Julia Strug, Russell Tautenhahn, Zack Varela, and Mike Yager. Geist, who also teaches at Sam Houston State University, says that although he is not religious, his mother is Jewish and he believes” instinctively married a non-Jew, in a sort of understanding that in so doing she would better protect her children should certain evils come back into the world.” Stoppard’s ending has tremendous impact, Geist says. “The last scene is sort of a gut punch and it’s incredibly emotionally impactful for me. I think people will recognize a loving family that is torn apart by history. At least one scene in the play will feel quite topical for today as folks are being forcibly removed from their homes.” Stoppard, born Tomáš Sträussler in Czechoslovakia in 1937, did not find out until he was in his early 50s that he was Jewish and that his grandparents had died in the Holocaust. “This story belongs to an entire generation of people,” Geist says. “That these things did happen. When you take a people, any people, and you dehumanize them and make them less than, then you can do anything to them and get away with anything. Those wounds are carried on down through their children and grandchildren. Performances are scheduled for March 28 through April 26 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays (with one Monday performance at 7:30 p.m. Monday March 30. At Main Street Theater- Rice Village,2540 Rice Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $45-$64. The post Torn Apart By History: <i>Leopoldstadt</i> at Main Street Theater appeared first on Houston Press.