Berkshire on Stage

Victimhood, the Holocaust, racism, classism, abuse, revenge, dementia, fear, helplessness and family. All these moving themes and more are addressed in Lawrence Goodman’s world premiere play, The Victim, at Shakespeare & Company.

Introduced to three women on a relatively spare stage, save a bed, a table, and a hat rack, Daphne (Stephanie Clayman), Maria (Yvette King), and Ruth (Annette Miller) each takes the stage for a half hour to tell her story of how they are all connected….and divided. Two sit upstage, seeming to listen, while the third speaks.

We learn Daphne is an upper-class, DEI-trained ER physician, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor whose mother is now suffering from dementia and needs full time care. We hear the devastating story of how her mother was living in Ukraine as a teen, ordered with her family to leave her home, to strip, jump into a trench and be ultimately shot with many other Jewish families. Miraculously, her mother survives, gets rescued by a Ukrainian woman, and eventually makes her way to America, marries her father and provides Daphne with a good life. Talking about her privileged family, her politically ‘woke’ children never fail to call her out about cultural appropriation and white privilege. But, she thinks about her mother who was tortured and abandoned. Being white brought her no privilege. She is determined to find an adequate caregiver for her mother, one who won’t abandon her, a goal which proves difficult as her story ensues when hiring Maria.

Maria is Latina, a single mother who lives with her son and her asthmatic mother. She is far from privileged. She enters the play and tells her story of being hired by Daphne to care for Ruth. Maria only wants to be a good mother and provide for her young son, the love of her life. Her son is bright, goes to a gifted and talented ‘white’ school, and struggles to fit in, often not wanting to go to school because he is bullied. Maria is desperate not to be fired, while given a book full of care-taking expectations by her physician boss. Ultimately, the needs of her own mother interfere with her ability to stay and care for Ruth, and her poor choice comes to a disastrous end.

The Covid pandemic affects both women. As an ER physician, Daphne is overwhelmed with death and endless needs of patients with insufficient staff. Maria’s asthmatic mother is one of those patients. Racism, classism and revenge rear their ugly heads. We hear self-righteousness from Daphne, sticking with saving her own kind, while allowing physicians of color to treat minority patients. She turns her DEI training on its head, while remembering nobody caring about the Jews during the Holocaust. Maria’s mother becomes another victim, leaving Maria grief-stricken.

Finally, Ruth tells her story. Her rescue after being left for dead and wandering the woods of Ukraine is far less fairy tale than what she has told her daughter. In fact, after discovering she has dementia, she writes her story down before she forgets it all. She has a complicated relationship with her rescuer who is both demented and abusive, who was abused by her Jewish employers and who lost a daughter to cholera. Her rescuer both enacts revenge and her desire to be a mother. Ruth only wants to be loved and not abandoned again. She has no one.

Every story reflects abuse and victimhood. We see the greatest change in Clayman’s Daphne. She is easily believable as an educated physician who deeply empathizes with her mother. We watch Clayman both share amusing anecdotes about her family, and later see her rage and vengeance suddenly erupt in the hospital as she faces Maria’s dying mother. Why should she care for Maria’s mother when Maria abandoned Ruth?

King’s Maria has the most emotionally developed portrayal of the three. She captivates us as she talks lovingly as a mother, expresses her frustration living with her own mother, and registers cynicism and fear working for her demanding boss. We feel what she feels as she effortlessly switches roles, despite being alone on stage.

While very experienced and beloved by Shakespeare & Company audiences, most notably originating the role of Golde Meir in Golde’ Balcony, Miller has little difficulty inhabiting the role of Holocaust survivor Ruth. However, her story of her torture, using a scary tormented voice, tends to be one note, taking away from the devastation she conveys. We want the final monologue to feel the most compelling but are left to wonder whether that role in the script is the least developed.

The backdrop of the stage, created by Set Designer, John Musall, is, at first, not easy to understand. We see three different shaped mirrors amidst a sea of dated photographs, as if ripped out of old photo albums. Surrounding the photos appears to be barbed wire which under the lights shows shadows of crisscrossing lines, perhaps suggesting an electric fence? We are faced with reflections, memories and imprisonment.

Sound Designer, Amy Altadonna effectively adds to the unchanging setting by enabling us to hear the outside world to orient us to the sounds of the city, a busy ER, and SS officers coming after Ruth. Lighting Designer, Erika Johnson ably switches the lighting and focus as scenes change within each monologue.

Costume Designer, Govane Lohbauer puts different jackets and bags on the hat rack, easily accessible for Daphne to don a white coat, and Maria to change out of work clothes. Simplicity is essential when no cast members leave the stage.

Director Daniel Gidron does an admirable job with this new play composed of three monologues. He enables our minds’ eyes to see the other characters who do not exist on stage. The pacing is swift and grasps our full attention. Without an intermission, we do not want to miss a word.

Goodman gives us so much to think about long after we leave the theatre. We learn from our past, but are we still destined to repeat it? Will we ever experience true equality? Do we ever become enlightened? When others go low, can we stay high? Or, do we need revenge before we can feel better? The Victim only gives three points of view. There are so many more.

The Victim by Lawrence Goodman, directed by Daniel Gidron, runs June 19-JUly 20, 2025, in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company. CAST: Stephanie Clayman as Daphne, Yvette King as Maria, and Annette Miller as Ruth. CREATIVE TEAM: Set Designer John Musall, Sound Designer Amy Altadonna, Lighting Designer Erika Johnson, Costume Designer Govane Lohbauer, Stage Manager Josh Rodrigues, Assistant Stage Manager Kulia McLaughlin.

The Victim runs through July 20 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at shakespeare.org or by calling the Box Office at 413.637.3353. $5 Card to Culture tickets for EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare participants are available for in-person purchase or by calling the Box Office. For more information, visit shakespeare.org.