The theme of this short play is the incalculable loss to society when artists or inventors die before their prime, whether because of illnesses or other tragedies -- man-made or not, focusing on Jewish history.

The drama takes place in the imagination of a former Nazi, Heinz in 1995, at a dire time point in the AIDS crisis when major life-extending treatment was not available. He imagines a confrontation with a Jewish boyhood friend, Abraham, who had aspired to be a great doctor, whom he had killed in a concentration camp during WWII. As he watches his son die of AIDS, he remembers Abraham’s childhood dreams of inventing the cure to a terrible illness.

His meditation/fever dream is prompted by news of the death of Jonas Salk, a Jew of his era.
Like other works of the playwright, even while contemplating dark subjects, the play dares to use humor, such as in a meditation on Holocaust survivor Anne Frank’s sales of her twentieth novel and ego problems.

AWARDS and PRODUCTIONS:

Finalist in Chicago Dramatists’ “Ten-Minute Play” Competition, receiving staged reading with Steppenwolf actors. Judged by David Zak of the Bailiwick Theater, Spring 1999.

First-place winner of play competition of the Unfinished Works program of AIDS Services Foundation Orange County, Irvine, California, December 2005.

Winner of Diversity Festival, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico, March 2001.