Mr. Kolpert
On Saturday, February 15, millions of people all over the world engaged in what might be called preemptive demonstrations against war with Iraq. The photos in the next day’s New York Times were stunning: vast crowds in Rome, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Manhattan jamming the streets and squares. Comparisons to the Vietnam- war era were as inadequate as they were common. This wasn’t like the testosterone-fed student riots of 1968. This wasn’t an uprising. It was the first, unprecedented manifestation of a new international community–the same community we were promised when the Internet began–showing up as if at a global city council meeting to express its consensus, its commitment, and its hope.
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By 7 PM Sunday, February 16, when German playwright David Gieselmann’s Mr. Kolpert opened at A Red Orchid Theatre, what he had to say about the morally numb and alienated in contemporary Germany seemed just so…yesterday. Almost literally. This mid-90s script had outlived its currency by a little over 24 hours.
Which made this a chillingly astute, if messy, bit of social commentary–prior to February 15. Now, we’ll see. The antiwar demonstrations may signal a recovery from the sort of empathic dysfunction depicted in Mr. Kolpert. On the other hand, we may be back to numb by next week. We may be there now.
