New Group associate artistic director Ian Morgan stages the work penned by New York Times reporter and first-time playwright Weinraub. Accomplices began performances March 20 at Theatre Row's Acorn Theater and will play through May 5.
Based on actual events, The Accomplices centers on "Hillel Kook, [who] arrives in the United States at the beginning of World War II, fresh from the underground resistance to the British in Palestine," as show materials describe. "Under the alias Peter Bergson, he leads a small group of activists seeking aid for the rescue of Jews in Europe. Bergson is shocked to find his efforts blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and the Jewish establishment."
The cast of stage veterans features Catherine Curtin (Six Degrees of Separation, Aunt Dan and Lemon), Jon Devries (Major Barbara, Loose Ends), Robert Hogan (A Few Good Men, What Didn't Happen), Zoe Lister-Jones (The Little Dog Laughed, Mad Forest), David Margulies (45 Seconds From Broadway, Angels in America, Carnival), Andrew Polk (Critical Darling, Flight), Daniel Sauli (The Judas Kiss, A View from the Bridge), Mark Zeisler (Brooklyn Boy, Big Love) and Mark Zimmerman (The Rainmaker, Brigadoon, Moonlight and Magnolias).
Director Morgan heads the New Group/New Works play development program and The New Group (naked) second stage series where he has directed Critical Darling and A Spalding Gray Matter. Other credits include Progress (Immigrants Theatre Project at HERE), Ham Lake (Soho Playhouse), Ethnic Cleansing Day (Production Company at the Kraine Theatre) and plays by Candido Tirado and Adam Rapp (24 Hour Plays).
The design team includes Beowulf Boritt (set), Theresa Squire(costumes), Jeff Croiter (lighting) and Matt Sherwin (sound). Post-show talkbacks, where audiences may learn more about the history behind the play, follow Tuesday evening performances (through May 1).
Up next for The New Group (naked) will be Heather Lynn MacDonald's Expats and Robert Tenges' Strangers Knocking.
Tickets for The Accomplices at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theater), 410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenue), can be purchased by calling (212) 279-4200. For more information visit thenewgroup.org.
