After the high crimes of the Third Reich came the judgment at Nuremberg.
Those famous war trials in the late 1940s became the basis for director Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning 1961 film, “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Containing one of the most intense courtroom dramas caught on screen, the film remains a classic.
In 2001, at the request of the late Tony Randall, Abby Mann adapted his Oscar-winning screenplay for the Broadway stage. Now, that theatrical version is set to make its West Coast premiere as “Judgment at Nuremberg” comes to Concord’s Willows Theatre for a monthlong run.
Though based on actual trial transcripts, Mann’s play is a work of fiction. Actor George Maguire portrays Judge Haywood, the character played by Spencer Tracy in the film. Haywood, says the actor, is “a rock-ribbed Republican from Maine who believed Roosevelt was a great man. He realizes the enormity he faces.”
Maguire’s Judge Haywood is one of a panel of Allied judges trying a third tier of defendants. The first comprised German military leaders like Hermann Goering; the second, industrialists who built the Nazi war machine. The third tier consisted of doctors, judges and other professionals who provided the Nazi regime with the cover of legitimacy.
The play’s lead defendant is Ernst Janning, a German jurist now tormented by his willingness to accommodate evil. He is defended by a young lawyer named Oscar Rolfe (played in the film by Maximilian Schell in an Oscar-winning performance), who argues that the judge merely acted according to existing law.
The play becomes a moral battle between good and evil, and though the outcome is never in doubt, Maguire says, “the tension for any production is to make the audience forget that. It becomes a very personal journey.”
It’s been a personal journey for Maguire as well. A Pittsburgh, Penn., native, Maguire lived in Germany when he was a young college student. He mastered the language and got to know the German people. His conclusion: Like the Nazis in the play, the average Germans he met were unable to accept responsibility for the Holocaust committed in their name.
“One of my lines in the play,” says the actor, “is ‘As far as I can find out, no one in this country knew.’ Having lived there in the ’70s, that’s true. They all said ‘We didn’t know.’ My take is Haywood’s take: They are responsible. The first time you sentence to death someone who is innocent, you are responsible. There is ultimate culpability all the way around.”
Maguire has directed at Willows Theatre before, but this is his first acting appearance there. He starred on Broadway in “The Canterbury Tales” and has appeared at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Actor’s Theater of Louisville.
Locally, Maguire co-starred in “Othello” and “Interior Decorations” at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He has also worked in more than 30 films and TV series, including “Fight Club,” “True Crime” and “Nash Bridges.” In addition, he teaches acting and theater at Solano Community College.
Maguire says one of the most powerful moments of the play comes when real footage shot at the death camps is projected on stage. Having visited Dachau and Buchenwald, Maguire is keenly aware of the legacy of the camps.
“It was an appalling crime against all humanity,” he says. “Everyone needs to be reminded. It’s recent.”
Though there are no Jewish characters in “Judgment at Nuremberg” and no Jewish actors in the cast, Maguire feels the play, in its own way, speaks for the victims of the Third Reich. And for that, he feels he and his colleagues have done their job.
“There’s something in the human soul that can lead to the Holocaust,” says the actor. “Fortunately, we’re aware of that.”
“Judgment at Nuremberg” plays 7:30 p.m.Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, matinees 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Friday, April 29-May 29 at Willows Theatre, 1975 Diamond Blvd., Concord. Previews begin April 25. Tickets: $25-$35. Information: (925) 798-1300 or www.willowstheatre.org.