Brett Temple and Ella Kaille Photo by Valerie Terranova

Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library is based on events unfolding around the philosopher and historian Hannah Arendt in the Germany of 1933. Because new race laws ban Arendt–then Mrs. Günther Stern–from academia as a Jew, she pursues her research at the Prussian State Library in Berlin. When the German government is embarrassed by internationally reprinted newspaper and journal articles exposing the country's conditions, Hannah is accused of being a source. As the play begins, we encounter Hannah after she has been detained and placed under the charge of Kurt, a newly promoted political officer played by Brett Temple with a finely honed balance between rigid conscientiousness and growing thoughtfulness.

At first glance, Ella Kaille's phenomenal Hannah is a frail and accommodating woman. But as Hannah's interactions with Kurt continue, she shows herself well able to handle his accusations and interrogations. More than that, she causes Kurt to think for himself. As a result, the cold and sparse prison cell becomes almost claustrophobic with the tension between the officer and prisoner.

The intensity of Hannah and Kurt's interaction is only briefly relieved by the lawyer Erich, earnestly played by Daniel Cantor, who has been sent by a Zionist group with an offer to handle Hannah's case. Assumptions are questioned, apparently safe decisions reveal possible traps, and surprisingly, there are moments of ironic and dark humor.

Eventually, Kurt must deal with the dangerous realization that he is a lawman under a government whose lack of respect for the law can endanger the people he is supposed to protect. At the same time, Hannah–who has already surrendered her identity as a German–faces the bitter realization that she has no future in the land whose language and culture are still a deep part of her soul.

Director Ari Laura Kreith wonderfully balances the interactions between Hannah and Kurt, as well as the silent moments when Hannah is left alone. Also worthy of applause is the consistency Kreith maintains in Temple's recognizably Prussian Kurt and Kaille's Hannah, who reveals different facets of herself throughout the play.

While the prison setting itself, wonderfully designed by Lauren Helpern and strategically lit by Zachary Connell, may be impersonal, Deborah Caney's costumes go far in defining the characters of Hannah, Kurt, and Erich and their placement in the Berlin of 1933.

Overall, Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library is a very uncomfortable and engrossing reflection on what happens when people find their world and even their very identities being upended. It is well worth the watching.