Congregation Temple Israel and the Holocaust Museum & Learning Center are bringing seven-time Emmy Award-winning actor Ed Asner to town for a concert reading of The Soap Myth on Thursday, May 2.
The Soap Myth takes place more than a half-century after the end of WWII when a friendship develops between a young Jewish journalist and a cantankerous Holocaust survivor on a crusade regarding “soap” in Holocaust museums. The Soap Myth dramatically explores how a survivor survives surviving and questions who has the right to write history – those who have lived it and remember, those who study and protect it, or those who would seek to distort and desecrate its very existence.
Dee Pelletier, who originated the dual roles of Holocaust scholar Esther Feinman and Holocaust denier Brenda Goodsen, has returned to the cast, which also includes Drama Desk Award winner Ned Eisenberg as Holocaust scholar David Silver and Liba Vaynberg as journalist Annie Blumberg. Playwright Jeff Cohen will be in attendance.
The Soap Myth has played to sold-out audiences and earned critical acclaim Off-Broadway at The Roundabout Theater at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York City.
The New York Times has called The Soap Myth, “A revelation! Thought-provoking and genuinely moving. A pointed investigation of the politics of history.” Michael Berenbaum, Project Director of The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, agreed, “The Soap Myth is extraordinarily well done. I urge audiences to go see it.”
Presenting sponsors are Rubin and Gloria Feldman Family Educational Institute and On the Run brought to you by Wallis Companies.
The 7 pm performance will take place at Temple Israel, 1 Rabbi Alvan D. Rubin Drive. Tickets are $36; preferred seating tickets are $72. Sponsorships are available that include tickets.
The performance is open to the entire St. Louis region. Find out more at ti-stl.org/SoapMyth.