J.C. Cutler Photo by Sarah Whiting

The Happiest Man on Earth is the memoir Eddie Jaku (he shortened his surname) wrote that was published in 2020, the year he turned 100. It became a best seller. Eddie died the following year, at 101, having lived most of his adult life in Australia where he and his wife raised two sons and were blessed with grandchildren. Mark St. Germain transformed Eddie's memoir into a one-act, one-man play that premiered at Barrington Stage Company in 2023, and is now being performed at Six Points Theater.

At age thirteen, with the ascent of the Nazis, the Nuremberg Laws took many rights away from German Jews and Eddie, who was a keen student, could no longer attend school in Leipzig. His father stole the identity of a gentile youth of the same age who had disappeared, and using that guise, sent his son away from home to attend a school focused on engineering.

Just after his graduation, Eddie was identified as a Jew during Kristallnacht, the violent anti-Jewish pogrom that erupted in November 1938, and he was sent to a concentration camp. His escaped out of vehicles, camps, and across the border in and out of Belgium, always ended in recapture, but his engineering acumen enabled him to be kept alive, though barely, by the Nazis, who classified him and others like him as "economically indispensable Jews." In this way he survived the Holocaust.

The other thing that kept Eddie alive, emotionally as well as physically, is friendship. In every situation he relates to us, no matter how horrific the circumstances, he has the ability to make a friend, to connect with someone who he can care about and can trust to care about him. That, it seems, is part of Eddie Jaku's lesson: being in connection with other human beings, even just one, can save your life.

St. Germain's script, based on Eddie Jaku's own words, tells this saga in harrowing detail, but always maintains Eddie's capacity to find reasons to go on living, and after the war, reasons to rebuild a life. Though he could have justifiably become bitter, melancholy, or paralyzed by the trauma he endured, he maintains the belief that every breath breathed is a gift and that his was the life of "the happiest man on Earth." This remarkable human being is brought vibrantly to life by J.C. Cutler, who fully conveys Eddie's humble, grandfatherly demeanor, his gentle humor, and his astonishment at the events of his life. His expressions of gratitude feel totally authentic, as do his recreations of fear and loss felt at different points on his long journey.

The premise of Eddie telling us his story is to practice with us, his new friends, for an address he has been invited to deliver tomorrow. Ben McGovern's direction ensures that Happiest Man is not a mere stand-up lecture, keeping Cutler moving between and around the lectern and interview chair that form the set (designed by Brady Whitcomb), weaving across the stage, veering this way or that, dodging downward, or reaching up on his heels, as Cutler brings physicality to his exposition.

Todd M. Reemtsma's lighting and C. Andrew Mayer's sound design add additional veracity to Eddie's account, with the sounds and lights of Jewish homes, rising up flames, of cattle cars hauling human freight, of gunfire, military vehicles, and the other sensory memories that haunt him. Anna Rubey has designed Eddie's costume, a conservative sweater vest, white shirt, and necktie that are cut to telegraph a feeling of old-world charm.

In our current moment, with challenges to our own and our neighbors' sense of liberty and personal safety on our own streets, it is a balm to hear Eddie Jaku tell us how he endured a far more difficult time, and that he could build on such a foundation to live with grace and gratitude. The words I hope to never forget are in his closing advice, passed down from his father to us: First comes family; second comes family; third comes family; and finally, we are all family.

The Happiest Man on Earth runs through February, 8, 2026, at Six Points Theater, Highland Park Community Center, 1978 Ford Parkway, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 651-647-4315 or visit www.sixpointstheater.org.

Playwright: Mark St. Germain, based on the memoir by Eddie Jaku; Director: Ben McGovern; Scenic Design and Technical Director: Brady Whitcomb; Costume Design: Anna Rubey; Lighting Design: Todd M. Reemtsma; Sound Design: C. Andrew Mayer; Properties Design: Rick Polenek; Stage Manager: Miranda Shunkwiler; Assistant Stage Manager: Kendall Roland..

Cast: J.C. Cutler (Eddie).