Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis of Scenes ACT I: scene i - The year 2000, inside Peter's memories; scene ii - The living and dining room in the Abeles apartment at 9 Heiligenstadterstrasse, Vienna, Austria, March 12, 1938; scene iii - The year 2000; scene iv - Ernst Abeles' office, Vienna, 1938; scene v - Inside the Abeles apartment, a short time later; scene vi - The year 2000; scene vii - Outside the Abeles' apartment building at 9 Heiligenstadterstrasse, a short time after Kristallnacht, November 10, 1938; scene viii - The year 2000; scene ix - The Abeles living room, a little more than a week after scene vii; scene x -The Abeles living room, during the late fall of 1938. ACT II: scene i - The year 2000 and the Abeles' living room, the morning after ACT I, scene x; scene ii - The year 2000; scene iii - The Jewish cemetery. Vienna, late 1938; scene iv - The Abeles' living room, January 1939; scene v - The year 2000 and the Abeles' apartment, sometime after March 1939; scene vi - The year 2000 and an examination room at the American Embassy, Vienna, Austria, 1939; scene vii - The Abeles' living room, November 1939 and the year 2000; scene viii - A few days later, aboard a train traveling through Germany for Holland, and the year 2000; scene ix - On the deck of the S.S. Rotterdam, a luxury Dutch ocean liner, and inside the Abeles' first class cabin, December 1939; scene x - The year 2000.
Synopsis
Otto is a new stage play by William Dorian about an aristocratic Jewish family caught up in the vortex of the early days of the Holocaust a family already dealing with the trauma of emotional child abuse caused by an irrational mother and dominated father. Adapted from portions of the book Otto, the Boy at the Window by Peter Abeles and Tom Hicks, the play chronicles the Abeles family's efforts to deal with the unstable Karla while desperately trying to escape from Nazi Europe.