KEYED

Saw Dean Poynor’s new play, PARADISE KEY last night at Trustus.

The work is solid. Well-researched, tautly scripted, infinitely actable. The subject matter is fascinating...a post-WWII twist on the “does the end justify the means” question.

We’ve got a former Nazi doctor being tortured into revealing his secret cure for polio. (I mean, if ever there was a defense of torture, wouldn’t “saving millions of children” be it?) But the playwright deftly turns table on us—would discovering a polio vaccine be worth freezing a Jewish prisoner in the process?

A terrific dilemma to explore on stage. With plenty of ready-made Guantanamo parallels...or even stem cell metaphors for those of us alarmed by the casual slouch toward living tissue experimentation.

As for the production, Alex Smith and Larry McMullen excel under Jim Thigpen’s spare direction.

Trustus is my most favorite place to see a play.