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Tom Dugan wants to reach you on a very human level. The award-winning writer and actor will be at the Zeiterion Theatre on Thursday, April 16, to perform “Weisenthal,” the story of a concentration camp survivor who goes on to hunt down 1,100 Nazi war criminals. The show will start at 8 p.m. and tickets are $20, $25, $29.
“This was a Jewish tragedy but a universal story,” Dugan says. “People are touched by it.”
And while the performance takes the audience through some dark and difficult situations, there is ample humor throughout the story. Weisenthal was a stand-up comedian before the war.
“After the war Weisenthal’s sense of humor enabled him to be a good teacher,” Dugan says. “Teaching was his greatest contribution.”
Today there are Weisenthal Centers throughout the world combating hatred and violence.
Dugan has a connection to World War II from a young age – his father fought in the war and was awarded the Bronze Battle Star and the Purple Heart. He helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp.
“My father relayed that story to me and it always stuck with me. After my father died I read Weisenthal’s story. In 2007 I began writing this work. Ultimately he had a message of tolerance, and I feel that people are very touched by that. It inspires enthusiasm.”
Another link Dugan has to the story is that his wife is Jewish and his two children are being raised in the Jewish faith. Dugan is Catholic.
“Weisenthal’s message resonates in my home,” Dugan says. “Tolerance plays a large role in our house.”
Weisenthal spent time in a dozen different concentration camps.
“When he moved to America to tell the story of World War II, in the 1950’s and 60’s he was largely ignored. People didn’t want to hear it. He pressed on until people started listening in the 1970’s and 80’s. That showed his true strength – he never gave up.”
Actor Ben Kingsley called him “a prophet in the wilderness.”
“I’ve talked to more than a hundred people who knew Weisenthal,” Dugan says. “Almost all of them are quick to say ‘Let me tell you a joke Weisenthal told me.’”
Dugan has written other plays about Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee and Mary Lincoln.
“I want people to relate to my characters,” he says. “I want the audience to know what that person is going through and realize themselves in the character.”
The play will take place on National Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The life of Simon Weisenthal and his teaching remind people to fight against hatred,” says Cynthia Yokem, Chair of the Holocaust Committee in the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford.
“He showed a great amount of strength by taking the responsibility on himself to defend the Jewish people and combat hatred.”
Students from different area schools will have their expenses paid to attend the performance.
“It’s important for young people to see the show of someone telling the story of Weisenthal,” Yokem says. “What he did is very powerful.”
After the performance Dugan will return to the stage for an After Talk, when he will take questions from the audience about Weisenthal.
