Notwithstanding reservations on moral and artistic ground, plays and performances addressing the Holocaust and its repercussions are gaining in number the more time passes since the actual event. Can and should the Holocaust be staged in the first place? Is a representation of the horror appropriate and commendable? What happens to the actor who takes on the part of a Nazi perpetrator, or, alternatively, the role of the victim, and how can a play affect spectators without being overtly didactic?

In his 1988 seminal book The Darkness We Carry: The Drama of the Holocaust, Robert Skloot notes five objectives that underscore serious dramas dealing with the Holocaust: "honouring the victims, teaching history to audiences, evoking emotional responses, discussing ethical issues, and suggesting solutions to universal, contemporary problems" (p. 10).

Instances of drama depicting the agonies of the victims of the Nazi ascent...