Crooked Cross is the story of the Klugers, a typical middle-class Bavarian family facing the economic and political turmoil of Germany between Christmas 1932 and June 1933. At its heart is a love story: Lexa Kluger is engaged to Moritz Weissmann, a Jewish doctor. Lexa’s brothers, Helmy and Erich, are becoming increasingly involved with the Nazi party, grateful to have “a real job with a little pay at least.” We see the rise of fascism, but we also see the yearning for belonging that draws these young men into darkness.
I think of some Mint plays as a kind of time capsule—a glimpse of the attitudes and emotions of the moment in which they were written.
Carson writes without historical hindsight, but with an uncanny amount of foresight. She doesn’t predict war. She doesn’t anticipate the Holocaust. But she knows something is deeply wrong, beginning with Lexa’s brothers. One tells Lexa that “he feels real for the first time in two years”—that the Party has “made my life normal again, made it something to begin to be proud of again.”
Crooked Cross was published in late July 1934. Some press reports claimed Carson turned it into a play in ten days; another suggested it was a play first—though I think that’s unlikely. It premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in February 1935. “The Rep” was an important and influential company, rare for its dedication to “serving an art instead of making that art serve a commercial purpose.”
In 1937, Crooked Cross was presented in London. By then, England and the world were paying closer attention to events in Germany—though still remaining scrupulously neutral. Carson’s own “warmth of heart and coolness of judgement” was recognized in the press. Below is from The New York Times:
It is not an impartial play but, granted its point of view, it is strictly fair. Its point of view is that of an artist interested in humanity, not that of a propagandist advocating or condemning a creed.
Thus, though the ostracism of Weissmann is shown as futile and cruel, Miss Carson is on his side only to the extent that he is a human being suffering injustice; she permits herself no word of sentimentality because he is a Jew.
Similarly, when Lexa’s brothers try to prevent her from seeing the man she loves—and behave with the folly or cruelty or bombast of youth intoxicated by power—Miss Carson is careful to show why power intoxicates them. She recalls the days of unemployment from which their Nazi activity is a release. She contrasts the boyish brutality of one brother with the self-conflict of the other. In general, she contents herself with showing the effect of Nazism on human beings, and refrains from painting the whole party with one condemnatory brush.
On Stage September 20 to November 1, 2025
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Added 7pm performance on 9/24, 10/8, & 10/29
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