Whatever its other merits, Remember This—The Lesson of Jan Karski is the most important show in New York right now. A monologue performed by actor David Strathairn, it’s a plea for truth amid the chaos of a fractured world, as much an indictment of today as of the inaction of western governments (notably Britain and the U.S.) during Hitler’s reign of terror.

 

It is also, not coincidentally, a way to keep memories alive of the millions who perished—another truth needed today, when polls say young people have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. But it’s most heartening to report that the play is an impressively dramatic work, a riveting 90-minute monologue performed brilliantly by David Strathairn.

 

Written by Clark Young and Derek Goldman (who also directs), Remember This underlines its intentions in its very title. Jan Kozielewski was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1914. He was a soldier in the Polish army on September 1, 1939, when the German blitzkrieg began WWII; after his capture by the Red army, he was transferred to the Nazis in an exchange and soon escaped, becoming—now known as Jan Karski—a courier for the Polish resistance, going to occupied France and London and even the U.S., where he visited FDR in the Oval Office. 

 

The Catholic Karski had a single message, from his own eyewitness testimony of seeing how Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and a nearby concentration camp lived—and died. But would leaders like Churchill and Roosevelt listen to his message? They did—to a point. But Karski believed much more could have been done. Six million dead by the end of the war is damning evidence of a lack of Allied leaders’ urgency.

 

Out of this rich dramatic ore, director Goldman has fashioned a breathless but emotional 90-minute journey, given special zest by Zach Blaine’s magisterial and subtle lighting and Roc Lee’s haunting music and sound effects. On Misha Kachman’s spare set of a table and two chairs, however, it’s Strathairn who makes Remember This unforgettable. The 73-year-old actor gives a physically imposing performance that’s simply jaw-dropping to watch: stalking around the stage, jumping off the table, rolling around the floor, changing clothes almost as much as he changes his accents (he not only voices Karski but the other characters, from Nazis and Polish Jewish leaders to FDR himself). 

 

Far from being merely technically demanding, Strathairn’s remarkable acting vividly embodies Karski’s incredible story, making Remember This must-see theater—and a moving memorial to a man whose life is a profound testament to human goodness.