Dennis Christopher, best known as the boyish lead in the coming-of-age movie, “Breaking Away,” portrays the unexpected character interrupting rehearsals for a play within the play, Retribution , beginning performances Oct. 14 at Off-Broadway's Lamb's Theatre.

Mark R. Shapiro’s drama is set in 1960s New York, where a young director named Jud Kramer (played by Jack Laufer) is staging a play about the Holocaust death camps.

Enter Carl Walkowitz (Christopher), who claims to have known the director at Auschwitz. The secret they shares erupts in the drama, directed by Michael Unger, which is described as “a mystery with a vengeance.”

Opening is set for Oct. 24.

Retribution is based on Daniel Stern's novel “Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die,” which was published in the '60s. Christopher's stage credits include Brothers, Breaking the Code and Yentl. He won L.A. Drama-Logue Awards for American Buffalo and Balm in Gilead. His other films include “Chariots of Fire,” and “A Wedding,” among others.

Shapiro is a former journalist and lobbyist, whose play The Shattering was produced Off-Broadway in 1996.

Laufer’s credits include the father in the film version of Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers.” He has appeared in regional theatres throughout the country and in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Bad Habits.

Unger has worked at the Mark Taper Forum, the McCarter Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Designing Retribution will be Narelle Sissons (sets) and Howell Binkley (lights).

For information, call (212) 239-6200.

-- By Kenneth Jones and Robert Simonson