Also this issue: History Repeating Art history meets contemporary social issues in Jane Irish's installation at PAFA. -Susan Hagen First Friday Focus -Lori Hill Let's Talk About Sex -Debra Auspitz Brand Spanking New -Debra Auspitz Take Two -Debra Auspitz By The Book -Debra Auspitz

January 2- 8, 2003

artpicks

Sometimes It's Hard to Be a Nazi

It's nothing new for women to follow Tammy Wynette's advice and stand by their men, even when those men do them wrong, humiliate them and do illegal and immoral things -- just look at Tammy Faye Bakker and Hillary Clinton. But the stakes are a little higher if we're in Nazi Germany and the woman in question is Emmy Göering, wife of Hitler's second-in-command, Hermann Göering, reputedly the brains behind the final solution to annihilate the Jews. Using text from Emmy's 1973 autobiography, German director Oliver Reese's play, Emmy Göering Stands by Her Man, looks inside a marriage at a guilt-plagued woman who, in the face of unspeakable horror, takes solace in her own naiveté. This week Theater Catalyst gives the show its English-language premiere. Theater history professor Elizabeth Hostetter translated the text and performs the role of Emmy opposite Patrick Doran as Hermann. Hostetter's husband, Anthony, the technical director of Temple's theater department, directs.

Emmy Gering Stands By Her Man, Jan. 8-26, $15-$18, Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-4330.

—Debra Auspitz