West Hatford"s Playhouse on Park inaugurates its 18th season with "The Happiest Man on Earth"

Sasha Brätt has launched his first Playhouse on Park production as co-artistic director with a compelling one-actor tour de force. Less is more in his staging of "The Happiest Man on Earth" - a dark wood-paneled lobby furnished with two captain's chairs and a leather-upholstered bench. The spaciousness leaves room for Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku 's continual pacing corner to corner, upstage and down, as he single-handedly captures the full attention of the audience for the next hour-and-a -half.

As he enters from off stage, an elderly Eddie (Robert Resnikoff) greets the theater-goers like new friends, then moves onto this antechamber in anticipation of being called on to an unseen stage, to deliver a speech about the personal pain and losses he endured as a Nazi prisoner during WWII.

Eddie admits to being nervous and asks the audience if he might not run by them some thoughts about what he will say to the pending larger audience. A 90-minute monologue follows - one that transforms an era of terror to a first-person testament of horror, perseverance and, in a remarkable way, hope.

Throughout the play Resnikoff's distinct, German-accented English shifts relentlessly from one deep-felt emotion to another: contentment of his early childhood, disappointment after expelled from school by the Nazis, fearful flight from his home in Leipzi, Germany, and sorrowful return to find his family and dog vanished. Years of torment ensue as he endures concentration camps, using his engineering skills to spare him from being killed. He eventually escapes a Nazi death march in 1945.

Resilient Eddie does rebuild his life and at 100 years old, published his memoir, "The Happiest Man on Earth." In a talk-back after a recent Sunday matinee, Resnikoff described the 47- page script adaptation of the memoir by Mark St. Germain , as "getting happy on page 46," nevertheless emphasizing that he felt compelled to audition for the part after reading the play. (Another talkback will follow the Sunday, October 11 2:00 pm matinee).

While Resnikoff appears alone onstage for the full, single-act, performance, stage lighting and sound effects by Christopher Ostrom and Zoey Lin, respectively, further enhance his eloquent execution of Eddie's trials and tribulations. Overhead lights often cast deep shadows and angles. Light beams radiate through slats in the paneled walls, simulating a moving Nazi cattle train through one of Eddie's haunting remembrances and a dark concentration camp barracks in another.

To experience history most of us have not lived through via a first-person account of, in this case, a WWII survivor, allows us to share in the humanity of its victims' great suffering. As ironic as the title of this play may sound after taking in Eddie's relentless struggles,"The Happiest Man on Earth" ultimately lifts us, like Eddie, in the same way light emits a welcome radiance after long hours of darkness have passed.

"The Happiest Man on Earth" is part of Playhouse on Park’s Main Stage Series, where people may subscribe to see this show as well as four to five other performances throughout the season, with subscribers receiving 20% off individual ticket prices, no ticketing fees and other exclusive perks.

Tickets are now on sale and range from $46 to 58.50 per seat, with student and senior discounts available. Tickets and additional information are available through Playhouse on Park’s website, www.playhouseonpark.org, or by calling the box office at 860-523-5900.