CHICAGO -- On Feb. 2 Ronald (The Dresser) Harwood's Taking Sides receives its Midwest premiere at Organic Touchstone Company, starring Chicago stage veterans Mike Nussbaum and B.J. Jones, and directed by Ina Marlowe. The play focuses on the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler and his fateful decision to remain in Germany during the time of the Nazi regime. The setting is Berlin just after the war, where an American officer is intent on proving the conductor's guilt by association. (He succeeded: A few years later, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra retracted its offer to make Furtwangler its music director.)
Harold Pinter directed the play in 1995 in London's West End and the next year Broadway saw it in a staging by David Jones starring Ed Harris and Daniel Massey.
