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Drama Canadian

The Trials of John Demjanjuk

A Holocaust Cabaret

by (author) Jonathan Garfinkel

introduction by Vivian Rakoff

by (composer) Christine Brubaker

Publisher
Playwrights Canada Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2005
Category
Canadian, Holocaust
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780887547744
    Publish Date
    Jul 2005
    List Price
    $16.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

In 1988 he was sentenced to hang, but in 1993, acquitted. In 2002 his American citizenship was revoked—for the second time. Was he guilty? And of what exactly? The Trials of John Demjanjuk probes the nature of guilt and the need for retribution as the circus of the public trial transforms the courtroom into cabaret, lawyers into Nazis, and survivors into singing emcees.

About the authors

JONATHAN GARFINKEL is an award-winning author. His plays include Cockroach (adapted from the novel by Rawi Hage) and House of Many Tongues, nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. The controversial The Trials of John Demjanjuk: A Holocaust Cabaret has been performed across Canada, Russia, Ukraine, and Germany. He is the author of the poetry collection Glass Psalms and the chapbook Bociany. His memoir, Ambivalence: Crossing the Israel/Palestine Divide, has been published in numerous countries to wide critical acclaim, and his long-form nonfiction has appeared in the Walrus, Tablet, the Globe and Mail, and PEN International, as well as Cabin Fever: An Anthology of the Best New Canadian Non-Fiction. Named by the Toronto Star as “one to watch,” Garfinkel is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the field of Medical and Health Humanities at the University of Alberta, where he is writing a memoir about life with type 1 diabetes and the revolutionary open-source Loop artificial pancreas system. He lives in Berlin and Toronto.

Jonathan Garfinkel's profile page

Vivian Rakoff's profile page

CHRISTINE BRUBAKER is a director, actor and educator. She splits her time between Calgary, where she is on faculty at University of Calgary's School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), and Toronto, where she works in a variety of theatre contexts, including directing, dramaturging new work and performing. Christine is the creator and co-writer of Henry G20, a large-scale outdoor performance. She is the winner of two Dora Mavor Awards for Performance, the 2014 Gina Wilkinson Prize for Direction, and the 2016 Ken MacDougall Prize for Emerging Director.

Christine Brubaker's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"There's nothing finer, for those with strong nerves, than cabaret that's the real thing…. The unfakable ingredient is that the artists must be so angry that they struggle to remain coherent…. Everything becomes furiously beautiful and cruelly funny…. Garfinkel has prepared an acidic script… hideously magnetic."—**** The Globe and Mail