Event

Leni

a new play by Sarah Greenman
with Amy Thone and Alexandra Tavares as Leni Riefenstahl
directed by Rhonda J Soikowski

Sarah Greenman's play journeys deep inside the mind and media of Leni Riefenstahl to discover why art can be a dangerous business.

Riefenstahl's career was shadowed by her history as a documentary filmmaker for Germany's Third Reich in the 1930s. Often called Hitler's propagandist, she disclaimed knowledge of or any responsibility for the Holocaust, saying in 1997 to the New York Times, "I did not know what was going on. I did not know anything about those things."

LENI illuminates the question of artists' responsibility, delving into personal struggles Riefenstahl undoubtedly faced as she continued to insist to her last interview that art and politics are separate and that what she did was in the world of art.

July 31 - August 9
Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway Ave (Capitol Hill)

"To call Leni Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will and Olympiad masterpieces is not to gloss over Nazi propaganda with aesthetic lenience. Because they project the complex movements of intelligence and grace and sensuousness, these two films of Riefenstahl transcend the categories of propaganda, or even reportage."
-Susan Sontag, in Fascinating Fascism

"Where is my guilt? I can regret. I can regret that I made the party film, Triumph of the Will in 1934. But I cannot regret that I lived in that time. No anti-Semitic word has ever crossed my lips. I was never anti-Semitic. I did not join the party. So where then is my guilt? You tell me. I have thrown no atomic bombs. I have never betrayed anyone. What am I guilty of?"
-Leni Riefenstahl, in The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl