A Bright Room Called Day

Act I: Friday 10/30, 5pm pacific/8pm eastern

Act II: Sunday 11/1, 5pm pacific/8pm eastern

Followed by panel discussions on current fascist movements with Robert Evans (It Could Happen Here, The War on Everyone), Laura Jedeed, Kristian Williams (Our Enemies in Blue), Shane Burley (Fascism Today) and others.

As we approach the most uncertain election in decades, join Faultline (www.faultlineensemble.org) for a reading of Tony Kushner's brilliant and difficult play about a group of Berlin artists surviving the Nazis' rise to power. Written during the Reagan administration and early days of the AIDS epidemic, this play traces parallels between Nazi Germany and modern right-wing movements. It's haunting text is terrifyingly relevant in this historical moment.

The Chicago Tribune has written that the play is "unabashedly political, thought-provoking, a little scary, and frequently a good deal of theatrical fun....Bright Room is...an examination of Nazi Germany in an attempt to shed insight on our own time. It's brash, audacious, and, depending on your politics, anything from infuriatingly naïve to intoxicatingly visionary."

Four years ago, Halloween weekend before the 2016 election, Faultline held a staged reading of Bright Room in Portland, OR. At the time, we foolishly hoped we'd seen the most relevant moment for this play in our lifetimes. Over the last four years, it has become dramatically more relevant to our daily lives. Though it breaks our hearts not to be able to gather in person, this reading will take place online to preserve our collective health. It will be followed by a panel discussion with activists and historians studying fascism in current times. Join us to, in Kushner's words, "grieve over the savagery" of this current moment, strategize for the future, and "dream ahead."

A note of warning: This is not an easy story. Be prepared for descriptions of the violence of living under fascism.