INCIDENT AT VICHY

In this dark character study, the first sounds the listener hears are faint music, then sirens, then the echoing frightened voices of detainees in a damp Nazi holding cell in Paris, 1942. They're the voices of men in trouble who are wondering how they'll survive and who is to blame. The despairing tones of an electrician (Arye Gross), a painter (Jon Matthews), a doctor (Raphael Sbarge), and six others who are arguing about who deserves to be sent to a concentration camp aren't pretty to hear, but they're mesmerizing. L.A. Theatre Works perfectly captures the black-and-white Cold War ambiance of this 1964 one-act classic. B.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2014]