Again, my most sincere thanks to Mr. Weisser for providing many of these images for this page of the website, and also for his time in giving some insight to the character of Helmuth Rode. The script is available online, but input from the man who brought him to life adds a much greater understanding of the character.
Check out this link on Google Books. This will take you to page 50 of a book entitled Beyond the Boundaries: American Alternative Theater, by Theodore Shank. On Page 50 he talks about this play, a history of the people of Vietnam.
Survival was key with every member of the orchestra who was questioned as part of this investigation. Helmuth Rode is brought in for questioning as well. He was a member of the orchestra, playing second violin. All of the orchestra members that were interviewed denied being members of the Nazi party, yet records indicate that there were party numbers associated with some orchestral members.
Norbert Weisser as Helmuth Rode being questioned by Major Steve Arnold as played by Ed Harris.
All of the images to the left were all provided to me by Mr. Weisser who also describes the character as thus:
"he's a kind of a rat..... clever.... tortured and wired for survival 'no matter what'......there's also a tragedy wrapped inside of his experience.....a fun character to play."
Other cast members include:
Elizabeth Marvel as Emmi Straube
Michael Stuhlburg as Lt. David Wills
Daniel Massey as Wilhelm Furtwängler
(Daniel is the son of veteran actor
Raymond Massey)
This website is presented as a tribute/fansite only and is not officially affiliated in any way with Mr. Weisser. There is no personal information about or contact information for him posted here.
Norbert has the role of Helmuth Rode in Taking Sides -- a play by British playwright Ronald Harwood. This play is based on true events during the post-war U.S. denazification investigation of the German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler -- an important cultural figure who was brought up on charges of having served the Nazi regime. Furtwängler was charged with supporting Nazism by remaining in Germany and performing at Nazi party functions. A lot of this is developed through the use of a detailed diary kept by Furtwängler during his interrogation sessions. The interrogation resulted in formal charges being brought against Furtwängler, however, he was eventually cleared by the tribunal.
Did you know?
Norbert will be appearing in The Arsonist at The Odyssey Theater Ensemble in Los Angeles from April 3 - May 23.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This synopsis is from an earlier version of the play. The actual play that will be performed at The Odyssey Theater may have been adapted.
The Arsonist is an absurdist comedy by Swiss playwright Max Frisch. The main character, Mr. Biedermann is a well-to-do executive who believes that the arsonists
responsible for a string of fires around the
city should be put to death. When a man
who seems suspiciously like he might be
an arsonist comes to Biedermann's house,
he talks about throwing him out, but he
never actually does.
Instead, he allows his own guilt over
having so much money to convince him to
allow this man to stay in his attic. Later he
even allows the man's friend to stay there
as well, even though he catches the two
loading barrels of gas into his attic.
Now on its own page!
It's both funny and depressing to see how far Biedermann will go in order to ignore the evidence that his guests are arsonists and convince himself that he is a good person.
The play is directed by Ron Sossi who is the Artistic Director and founder of The Odyssey Theater Ensemble. The Arsonist is from a translation by Alastair Beaton, a British playwright. Please see The Odyssey Theater website for additional information.
The Odyssey Theater is located at 2055 Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Tickets range from $25-$30 depending on the day of the performance.
Max Frisch was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1911, and is the author of numerous novels, journals and dramatic works, and was also an architect. He died of cancer in 1991. Additional reading on Mr. Frisch can be found here on Wikipedia.
The Arsonist, also known as Firebugs is available in book form from Amazon.
