Rivka on Reaganism and Nazism in Bright Room

From: "Rivka Golomb" 
To: whseminar@dept.english.upenn.edu
Subject: reaganism and nazism go together like a...
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 19:04:52 -0000



So to begin with, thanks Tim for only stealing part of my thunder though I 
think I still went over some of the same thing but in a different context.
	In Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day Zillah is the obvious connection 
between Reaganism and Nazism in Kushner's early work.  In interviews, 
Kushner has mentioned that A Bright Room minus Zillah would be merely a 
drama about a group of friends in Germany during the shocking and swift 
transition from the Weimar Republic to Nazi-Germany.  Without her, the theme 
of fighting back and not just allowing things to happen would still exist in 
the play.  The idea that the same kind of tolerance and passivity from 
decent people and even leftist people occurred during the 1980s and early 
1990s (perhaps Kushner would say the same about our most recent elections 
too) is only added through the character of Zillah.
	Centering around a group of communists/artists in early 1930s Germany, the 
first part of the play deals with the character Agnes' attempt to become 
involved in the communist party.  Agnes's group of friends include her 
Hungarian exile lover, Husz, the actively Communist artist, Gotchling, the 
openly homosexual Baz, and finally the pragmatic, apolitical yet signed up 
member of the Communist party (when it was in style) and actress Paulinka.  
The beginning acts of the play focuses on the characters' short-lived hope 
that Germany is heading towards the left not the extreme right led by 
Hitler.  Zillah is interjected during this unknown and dark time discussing 
the evils of Reagan establishing the first connection between the two 
periods.  Later, as the leftist element of the government are slowly being 
eaten up by the Nazis, Zillah returns in the play, discussing how paranoia 
saved Hannah Arendt from the dangers of Germany, Zillah believes that the 
same paranoia can possibly save her.  In the main plot of the play, after 
Hindenburg appoints Hitler, Chancellor, the characters react with a mixture 
of fear, defeat, anger, and in the case of Gotchling prepared to continue 
the fight.   Zillah comes back discussing the nature of evil, saying 
unequivocally, "REAGAN EQUALS HITLER! RESIST! DON'T FORGET, WEIMAR HAD A 
CONSTITUTION TOO!"  She shouts out to the audience to fight back to not 
allow the reactionary elements of Reagan allow the same damage caused by 
Hitler in Germany.
	The devil is an importer of Spanish novelties in Germany towards the end of 
Part I, he did not even need to be summoned he was already there as he may 
be also in disguise in America as well - he is not even at his most potent.  
As Hitler's regime becomes more powerful, the group of friends is separated 
into many different directions.   Gotchling asks for Agnes' help (even as 
Agnes becomes more paralyzed as the situation worsens), reminding her friend 
"The dream of the Left are always beautiful the imagining of a better world 
and a damnation of the present one."  An idea, Kushner clearly wants us to 
remember in terms of the left of 80s America.  Shortly after this speech 
about the beauty of the left; Zillah comes in reminding us that both 
Reagan's and Hitler's full names can be changed into 6-6-6.  This play is 
not only an examination of the evils of Hitler and Reagan but the need for 
people to respond to this evil.   At one point in the play, Baz recounts a 
story of how he had the opportunity to kill Hitler but he did not because he 
himself did not want to die as he surely would have been killed after 
committing such an act.  This is a more extreme example of putting oneself 
before the greater good.  That action is embodied by Agnes as she watches 
all her friends leave and only barely helps out the cause even though she 
had earlier espoused leftist dreams and desires.  Zillah is the reminder to 
us that we cannot allow the same thing to happen in America - that Reagan 
may not be Hitler but if you believe he is evil, you must do something, "the 
borders are full of holes."
	In discussing A Bright Day, Kushner says that he was trying to do the most 
"obnoxious" thing, one could do in 1985 by telling the American people that 
they just "re-elected Hitler."  Moreover he explains that "Zillah is 
concerned with not remembering history, not being able to learn from 
history."  Kushner, however, wants to make sure that people know Zillah is 
not him.  The key of A Bright Room is to participate, to fight back, and to 
react vigorously to what we disagree with, with what we see as evil even if 
it has a benign face.




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