Times Like These

California Stage Theater presents the Sacramento premiere of the Holocaust remembrance play, Times Like These. Written by nationally celebrated playwright John O’Keefe, the Sacramento production will be directed by Elly Award-winning Sacramento director Richard Winters.

The play takes place in Hitler’s Berlin between 1934 and 1938. O’Keefe has based his story loosely on the true story of Joachim Gottschalk, the German Cary Grant of his day, and Gottschalk’s Jewish wife, Meta Wolff. When Wolff is banned from the stage because she is Jewish, she attacks the only way she can: through her actor-husband, whom she directs behind the scenes in a production of Hamlet designed to boldly satirize the Nazis.

Playwright John O’Keefe has been both an actor and writer for almost 50 years. Daily Variety lauds the play by saying: “The play’s distinction lies in its truthful examination of fear. O’Keefe’s characters don’t display typical stereotyped heroism. They bend and break, and by exploring this very human weakness, Times Like These gives the horror of Nazism a new and original clarity.”