Gilded Balloon
Four stars
One would never guess what the jolly old Austrian man sat at his desk for the final time who just invited us to pay witness to his work has been through in Tom Dugan’s solo play. In Christopher C. Gibbs’ avuncular portrayal of charming but obsessive real life Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal, however, Dugan’s script presents a man as far removed from the idea of a hardcore vigilante as you can get.
Directed by Mark Liebert, Dugan’s set up gives us a close up of a man whose laborious and methodical tenacity forced surviving Nazis who took an active part in the Holocaust out of hiding and put them in the dock. What emerges out of a play first seen in 2009 is not just a plea for humanity in the face of atrocity, it is a depiction of the humanity that is possible beyond that as a direct result of Wiesenthal’s actions.
Gibbs brings all his experience to bear here in his portrayal of a man who on the one hand was a survivor of Nazi concentration camps who went on to change things at a global level. With a somewhat fanciful way with a story across several memoirs, in his home life Wiesenthal was prone to forget to pick up milk as requested by his wife for whom he is perennially late getting home for dinner.
Apart from the understated vitality contained in a simple but supremely realised depiction of such a serious subject, Dugan’s play is an important reminder of figures such as Wiesenthal. It also a reminder that the crucial work they did exposing evil is never forgotten.
Until Aug 30, 1.15pm
The Herald, August 16, 2026
ends
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