IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility

[TimesSquareRegular]

IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#1

Posted: 4/4/09 at 6:33pm

I saw the April 2nd performance, and during the Q&A that followed the curtain calls, Irena's daughter introduced a man identified as the baby born in hiding.

Then I went back and read Adam Feldman's review in Time Out, in which he says "distortions come from Gordon's Hollywood -screenwriter impulse to tart up the story, as when he invents a major plot point involving the birth of a baby among the hidden Jews."

So - either a fraud was walking onto the stage of the Walter Kerr Theatre, or a smug reviewer has slandered a playwright and displayed incredible irresponsibility.

And the truth is ....

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[insertclevernamehere]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#2

Posted: 4/4/09 at 7:00pm

I found an interview where Mrs. Gut Opdyke talks about the married Jewish couple and when the woman told Irena she was pregnant. http://www.achuka.co.uk/special/opdyke.htm
So I would go with the author not the reviewer.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...I'm the good cop, he's the bad cop.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#2

Posted: 4/4/09 at 7:08pm

So they're continuing with the Q&A? Good!

[April Saul]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#3

Posted: 4/4/09 at 10:44pm

Judging from Irena's daughter's posts here--on the Irena's Vow Reviews thread--I'm not surprised she would continue the Q & As. I think a lot of the comments from critics and posters upset her, and she wants very much to honor her mother's memory and help make the show a success. I would love to see her write a letter to the NY Times about her feelings on this as well; I can't imagine that they wouldn't print it...

[Yankeefan007]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#4

Posted: 4/4/09 at 10:54pm

According to NY1, the Q&As will continue through the end of April.

[luvtheEmcee]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#5

Posted: 4/4/09 at 11:19pm

So - either a fraud was walking onto the stage of the Walter Kerr Theatre, or a smug reviewer has slandered a playwright and displayed incredible irresponsibility.

The point you raise is a big problem, no doubt, but I think it's more the need for informed writing and careful fact-checking than for an attitude adjustment.

A work of art is an invitation to love.

Updated On: 4/4/09 at 11:19 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#6

Posted: 4/4/09 at 11:20pm

If the show lasts that long.
I wonder why the reviews were so cruel.
There are so many plays and play revivals,
and I mean that in a good way.

[Yankeefan007]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#7

Posted: 4/5/09 at 8:48am

Well, both TONY and the Times pointed out plot twists that seem unbelievable, I believe citing this as one.

[Smaxie]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#8

Posted: 4/5/09 at 8:53am

Adam Feldman addresses this on Time Out's theatre blog, Upstaged:

http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/upstaged/2009/04/truth-in-irenas-vow/

He explains that while Ida Haller was pregnant while in the house, she did not give birth there as depicted in the play.

Interestingly too, in the follow up comments, the playwright Dan Gordon responds to Feldman's column.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

Updated On: 4/5/09 at 08:53 AM

[Yankeefan007]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#9

Posted: 4/5/09 at 9:27am

Thabnks for posting.

I'm on Feldman's side.

Marketing touts the show as "triumphant true story" when it really is a "true-with-elements-manipulated-for-drama" story. Updated On: 4/5/09 at 09:27 AM

[TalkinLoud]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#10

Posted: 4/5/09 at 9:32am

The Q&A was more fascinating and moving than the play.

Did anyone else hear the story about how Irena met her husband? Or about what happened to the German officer that owned the house she hid the Jews in?

[Jeannie Smith]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#11

Posted: 4/5/09 at 9:37am

I just don't understand why some of critic's are so closed minded and bent on thinking that the story is made up. Is it that hard to believe that good things can happen?
You did see the real "baby" up on stage the other night... he is alive and well.

[Jeannie Smith]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#12

Posted: 4/5/09 at 9:46am

I was very upset about some of the reviews, especially the NY Times. Mr Isherwood was so off the mark! Everyone is welcome to their opinion of course, but his review wasn't based on fact.
I did write a long rebuttal to the times and submitted it to them, at this point they have not chosen to print it. It's very frustrating, but we just go on and we are counting on word of mouth from the audience. We may be a smaller show compared to what is on Broadway but I believe that word of mouth multiplied by hundreds of people can over-ride the ugly, harsh and untrue comments from one very unhappy, unkind dark minded man. Thank you for your positive comments, they are much appreciated!
Much Love, Jeannie Opdyke Smith

[Yankeefan007]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#13

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:00am

It's not that they're bent on the story being made up, it's that they're bent on the play being made up.

When a piece is being touted with the phrase "true story" in the tagline, there is no room for dramatic license. I had the same problems with FROST/NIXON and that the best scene - dramatically speaking, of course - never actually happened.

[TalkinLoud]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#14

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:10am

Why can't you take artistic license when something is based on a true story?

[adamgreer]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#15

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:53am

So, I'm confused...was the kid born in the basement, or wasn't he?

It seems we still haven't quite figured that out.

[D2]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#16

Posted: 4/5/09 at 11:15am

I'd just like to point out that the best scene in MARY STUART, the confrontation between Elizabeth and Mary, is also completely fictional.

Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)

[Smaxie]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#17

Posted: 4/5/09 at 11:16am

He wasn't, as per Opdyke's memoir. Here's the passage from Adam Feldman's blog, quoting from the memoir:

"Ida Haller did get pregnant while in hiding. But she did not give birth. Opdyke's memoir, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer, makes it very clear that Haller is still pregnant when the Germans begin retreating from Poland, and Opdyke smuggles her out of Major Rügemer's basement:

I stopped at the Pasiewskis'.

"Help me Zygmunt," I pleaded. "I have a pregnant woman I have to get out of the house. She can't stay in the forest in her condition"

We heard the distant boom of mortars. Zygmunt hitched his chair closer and spoke in a low voice, so that the children playing by the big stove would not hear. "I have a place here in the cottage, between the walls. There is room for her and for another woman to help her, if she wants."

Many months later, after she has spent time fighting for Polish liberation with a group of forest guerrilla fighters, Opdyke is reunited with one of the women she rescued:

I couldn't help laughing. "We'll see. And Ida and Lazar? Please tell me - the baby?"

"The baby was born at Pasiewski's. It's a boy, fine and healthy. His name is Roman."


The gazebo incident, in the memoir, has nothing to do with the sounds of a baby. "Ida had a cough," Opdyke writes, "and I was afraid the SS man might hear her."


To summarize: The material about the birth of the baby in Irena's Vow seems unbelievable because it is, in fact, fictional. But it presents itself as true."

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

Updated On: 4/5/09 at 11:16 AM

[Yankeefan007]

re: IRENA'S VOW - truth, and a reviewer's responsibility#18

Posted: 4/5/09 at 1:32pm

You can definitely take artistic license when it's "based on a true story." FROST/NIXON never purported to be, as IRENA'S VOW does, "the true story." It's a dramatic retelling. IV claims to be "the triumphant true story," when it is not. Updated On: 4/5/09 at 01:32 PM