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Beate Hein Bennett
October 11 – January 4, 2026
In our time when political turmoil seems to be the daily norm that keeps spinning all previous norms like a dreidel to the point of becoming unrecognizable, it pays to look at previous points in history that were under similar pressure. No matter what ideology, religion, or system of government, no matter how strong the institutions of governance, the ultimate test is the moral/ethical strength of the respective people who get into the ‘business’ of governing or running institutions to maintain an equitable delivery of the socially agreed-upon set of laws and rules. Of all the systems of government, democracy is the most promising from a humanistic point of view but it is also the most vulnerable—as in Benjamin Franklin’s famous addendum “…if you can keep it.”
This brings me to the present production “Truman vs. Israel: Abzug and the Undressing of Truman” by William Spatz. This drama of the fictional encounter between Harry S. Truman and Bella Abzug displays the full complexity of political life and the persons that move the world into new directions and solutions, for better or worse, and all imperfect because the human being is not really made for decision making on the grand scale that is required of a leader of a state or a nation. The leadership required of a President in the democratic system of a Republic with a tri-partite share of governance, as is the case of the United States of America, is certainly more complicated than in an autocratic or a totalitarian system of governance. The additional US presidential moniker “Commander-in-Chief” complicates matters even more, since it involves the President’s ultimate executive authority over the military. In this play,these are the political complications but it is the clash of character and personalities, the inner struggles of the individuals that drive their actions and reactions—and the debate.
In January 1945, Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972) was selected to become President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second Vice President after Henry Wallace. In February 1945, a very ill Roosevelt attended the Yalta Conference where together with Churchill and Stalin plans for the end of the war and the division of Europe into four distinct domains of influence were drawn up. In April 1945, President Roosevelt succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage, and Truman took on the Presidency. In November 1945, he was duly elected as President. While military combat had ended in Europe on May 8, 1945 with Germany’s capitulation, Japan had not yet surrendered—so in August 1945 Truman gave the order for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which forced Japan’s surrender. Meanwhile according to UN statistics, seven million displaced people were wandering the face of war ravaged lands and cities in search of a home and a new existence—a chaotic situation dominated by hunger, poverty, and fear of retribution prevailed for the next several years. The West looked to the United States for judicial/judicious leadership—the US conducted the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. However, above all, US economic aid, in the form of the Marshall Plan, was dispatched to alleviate hunger and to help reconstruct industries. Harry Truman served as President from 1945-1953. He has been commonly portrayed as an honest simple man-- a haberdasher from Kansas City Missouri-- the quintessential American ‘Common Man.’ He was a Democrat to the core though he had to shed any Missouri Dixiecrat aroma, his politics were pro-labor and pro equity. While foreign politics were not his prior forte, he became instrumental in the founding of the state of Israel—his old friend and partner from army days in WWI, Eddie Jacobson, a secular Jew, educated him about Zionism and the importance of supporting the UN resolution that would establish a state for the Jews in the Palestinian Mandate (under British rule). Truman met with Chaim Weizman, the British negotiator and later first President of the State of Israel, and in 1948, the US became the first country to recognize Israel. After his retirement from the political arena, Truman and his wife Bess retired to his home in Independence, Missouri. Truman’s checkered political and private relationship with Jews specifically is the central subject of this play. The play starts during a brief moment in 1948 during the last days of the Arab/Israeli War when a young soldier (Don Muller) is wounded—we hear gunfire and explosions—and fiercely curses Truman. The next scene is set in 1988 during a painting session with sixty-eight year old Bella Abzug while radio dispatches about the Palestinian Intifada in Israel are heard and discussed by the Painter and Bella. The scene shifts again, this time to 1953 when a young Bella Abzug and her legal assistant, attorney Don Muller visit retired President Harry S. Truman in his home. They have come to discuss the merits of Truman’s intended libel lawsuit against the journalist David Rosenfeld, who published an article with the headline “Bigotry, Bombs, and Broken Promises” in the March 10, 1953 New York Evening Star issue. This fictional visit is the central action upon which the drama is built. Bella Abzug (1920-1998), the Bronx-born civil rights lawyer and activist, later NY Representative in the US Congress, was well-known for her abrasive wit and aggressive Bronx- accented rhetoric. She begins by probing Truman about his motivations behind his progressive political agenda against racism and anti-Semitism which is in sharp contrast with his personal attitudes towards Jews and Blacks. The play also dissects Bella Abzug’s own political and personal motivation behind her interest in Harry S. Truman as a politician and as a person. That is the “undressing” in the play—the intention to uncover the deeper personal layers behind political and social actions and their subsequent consequences. Four finely attuned actors bring this complex drama to life: Helen Laser plays Bella Abzug with wit and feisty self-assurance. Willy Falk as Harry S. Truman asserts a credible authority, yet he is wary –he insists on being called Mr. President, “or the interview is over.” Underneath his façade of the simple Midwestern common man and wry humor lurks the fear of ‘being found insufficient’—the impostor syndrome. Willy Falk’s supple facility in changing tone makes him a superb partner to Ms. Laser’s sharp wit. Matt Caplan plays Don Muller as an obliging competent assistant, mostly reticent and observing, but not without the capacity of a sharp retort and eventually an explosion of emotions. Last not least, Mark Lotito plays several supporting roles: first the nameless Painter, a New York liberal Jew, but more importantly, he portrays Truman’s longtime loyal friend and business partner Eddie Jacobson, a real ‘mensch’ who knows and tolerates Harry’s foibles and limitations. Mr. Lotito also becomes the voice for various historical figures in Truman’s political past. The Greenhouse Theater Center Chicago production is superbly directed by Randy White in a beautifully appointed set designed by Lauren Halpern that fills the wide stage at St. Clements with exquisitely chosen details. The lighting design by Tyler Micoleau creates the warm ambience of Truman’s living room but also sharply delineates the different time segments and inside/outside location zones, so important to the seamless flow of this intense drama. Sound design by Elisabeth Weidner underscores the varying historical background. The costumes designed by Sydney Gallas evoke the different periods and personalities, such as Bella Abzug’s trademark floppy red hat, and Truman’s light-grey double-breasted suit. All in all, the play and its production present a rare theater experience—a challenging multi-layered investigation into the history of a political life under pressure—in the shadow of New York’s Broadway.
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