Traveling Jewish Theatre presents John O'Keefes Times Like These

Although "Times Like These" takes place in Germany during the Nazi period it was written not so much as an historical document but as a warning to those who think that such things are in the past, that we have moved beyond such possibilities, that we have constructed safeguards against such things, that we as Americans, could never fall to such a state. The slow invasive nature of such a condition can move with such an all encompassing form and force that we might not even notice it. The ubiquitousness of modern communications can create an illusion of normalcy. A soft tyranny can creep into our lives and we adjust to it. It is just the "modern" world. We communicate but the inflation of information negates itself. Soon we are accustomed to being "overheard" through our cell phones, our e-mails, itemized through our purchases, anesthetized by access to filtered sensation, traumatized unto insensitivity by the numerous wars that are necessary to the hegemony of power that run our air conditioners, our meat factories, or information centers. All these things happened in Germany in the 1930’s, the modernization of communication and transportation, of science and health, the proliferation of goods and services. Nothing could really be that bad. The Nazi party would become reasonable in time. Only crazy people and conspiracy theorists would believe that things would get worse. After all, this was the jewel of European culture, this was Germany, just as America was the birthplace of freedom.

John O'Keefe, San Francisco, January 2004