Times Like These Two

Oskar arrives home to an apartment that has been trashed and finds that Meta is missing. He calls the security police. When they return, she recounts being questioned by them regarding weapons, and then being taken by them. Oskar tidies the apartment as she speaks, listening to her, knowing she is terrified. Then Meta accuses him of looking just a little like them. He says that it's just him and he doesn't look like anyone. Meta dances alone around the apartment. When Oskar returns, she goes on about how her teeth were rotten but she found a good Jewish dentist and he fixed her right up. Oskar tries to get her to come back to her senses, telling her that her teeth were fine and that there was no dentist. He takes her into his arms and comforts her. Meta talks to no one in particular that people are missing from the streets, but no one says anything. She can't go out and walk in the park any longer -- only to the cemetery where there are so many new Jewish graves. Oskar tells Meta that things are changing -- there is a new director at the theater, and he wants her to celebrate with him. She is unresponsive, having gone into a deep depression. He tells her he is going to play Hamlet and she comes alive again talking about how she would produce the play.

Norbert Weisser as Oskar Weiss in Times Like These

After Oskar finishes dressing he approaches her, but she recoils from him. Later, he recounts how he feels he is performing his role from outside of his body. Meta comes in dressed as a man while Oskar sleeps on the sofa. She has attended her first Jewish event, a reading by Hans Heinz Ewers, and says that the man they spoke about at the meeting is her model for Hamlet -- Horst Wessel. Oskar scolds her and says she must never do that again because she could have been shot. Oskar then goes to a vase and offers her a rose that he brought from the theater. Meta brings out a uniform for Oskar saying he must dress and look the part.

Meta tells him he is just afraid of his own potential. She then tells his that Horst Wessel is in the back of his head, and asks him what he is feeling and what he wants to to. As he listens to her words about how to feel the part, a change comes over him. Getting into the role he says he wants to break her neck. He handles her violently and places his hand around her throat. Meta encourages him knowing it will bring a better performance out of him, and is delighted when he then recites his lines passionately. (Please watch the video clip of this powerful scene that is available on the Padua Playwrights website.) Later that night Oskar then tells Meta that he brought down the house with his performance. A drunk Oskar enters and tells Meta he met Goring, and that he knows she is a Jew. He tries to get her to celebrate with him, but she pulls away. He then swears at her, but then rips the armband off of his uniform as if it is burning him and apologizes to her. He then becomes frantic as he says they must get her to Switzerland. Meta insists on going to the theater one last time with him. When they return they dance in celebration, but then they go quiet when the phone rings - the play is cancelled. The director advises them to leave Germany immediately.

Not knowing where to go or what to do, they only know they don't want to be apart. Oskar says that he has no poison, he has no gun, but they have gas. Their last words are love for each other as the gas overtakes them, just as there is a loud knock on the door... These captions represent only a very brief portion of this complex and emotional play. Many of the important conversations throughout their performances have not been included. You can read the play in its entirety on the John O'Keefe website.