Current themes in 1940s-set play “Watch on the Rhine” for Modesto’s Prospect Theater

Political leanings in the midst of World War II create family drama and angst in the next production from Prospect Theater Project.

Lillian Hellman’s play “Watch on the Rhine” takes place during the spring of 1940, in a country home just outside of Washington, D.C. Prospect presents the play Nov. 16 through Dec. 2 at its downtown Modesto theater.

Just miles away from the nation’s epicenter, Fanny Farrelly, the matriarch of the Farrelly family, is fraught with anxiety over her daughter’s imminent arrival, according to a press release from Prospect.

Sara Farrelly fell in love 20 years earlier with Kurt Muller, a German engineer and active anti-fascist. Despite her mother’s disapproval, she married Kurt and they emigrated to Europe. At the time of the play, according to the release, the Muller family has fled Germany – where the rise of the Nazi party has led to increasing violence, xenophobia and zealotry – and moved to America, on its way to the Farrelly property, a modest Southern estate built in the early 1800s.

“But the Mullers are not the only ones seeking refuge in the Farrelly estate, nor is Sara the only American who married a European and was whisked away,” the release said. The Count and Countess de Brancovis have been staying with the Farrellys. Teck de Brancovis is minor Balkan nobility, and his wife Marthe spent her childhood visiting the Farrellys with her family. “Now, over two decades later, Marthe is looking for a way out: stuck in a marriage to a dissembler with deeply disturbing political ties, she feels the pull of past happiness. Returning to the Farrelly estate has reinvigorate her — in part because she has reconnected with David Farrelly, Sara’s handsome younger brother.”

When Teck de Brancovis’ personal political leanings and steadfast Kurt Muller’s ardent anti-Fascism meet under one roof, the play shifts from its initial tone of Southern drawing-room comedy “to a taut, tense drama that has implications on a personal and global scale,” according to the release.

Directed by Prospect’s founding Artistic Director Jack Souza, the cast includes: Ashlee Lujan-Garner (Anise), Connie Stetson (Fanny Farrelly), Michael Hewitt (Joseph), Andrew Brown (David Farrelly), David Hambley (Teck de Brancovis), Traci Sky Sprague (Marthe de Brancovis), Robin Bjerke (Sara Muller), Kyle Holman (Joshua Muller), Becky Bjerke (Babette Muller), Ike Zagone (Bodo Muller) and Jim Kocher (Kurt Muller).

Winner of the 1941 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and turned into a 1943 film starring Bette Davis, “Watch on the Rhine” resonated with audiences in the early 1940s, as the world fought against the rise of the Nazi regime.

The recent acts of violence in the U.S., including the deadly shootings at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, make the play more pertinent for current audiences. The Saturday, Dec. 1, showing is sold out, with Modesto’s Congregation Beth Shalom buying all the seats for the evening, Prospect spokesperson Laura Dickinson-Turner said in an email.

“Nearly three-quarters of a century later,” the press release said, “the play is still a call for individual action: the choices and deeds of one person can have a stronger impact than any of us know.”

“Watch on the Rhine”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and Thursday, Nov. 29; 2 p.m Sundays. Nov. 16-Dec. 2

WHERE: Prospect Theater Project, 1214 K St., Modesto

TICKETS: $10-$25

ONLINE: prospecttheaterproject.org