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Huebener and Other Plays
Preface, Huebner, Fire in the Bones, Gentle Barbarian, Frere Lawrence, and Charades. "Huebner touched us where no other Mormon play had ever reached.... Huebner did what art is meant to it changed our life.... We know more than a few artists who could die happy if they knew they had done that even once." -- Orson Scott Card
244 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 19, 2013
Admittedly, I'm biased, because I published this book, but I spent the time and energy to get this in print for a very good reason: it's a really great collection of plays.
The title play, Huebener, is based on an incredible but not very well known story about Helmuth Hübener (the author, Tom Rogers, decided on a variant spelling to avoid the use of the umlaut), a young German Mormon who wrote and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets within Germany while the Nazis were in power. At the time, the Mormon church was attempting to steer clear of trouble by avoiding any confrontation with the government. In the play, Hübener is opposed and eventually confronted by his local Mormon church leader, who turns him in for his anti-Nazi activity. Hübener was eventually arrested by the Gestapo. Shortly after his arrest, the LDS church publicly and demonstratively excommunicated him. Hübener was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine in 1942. Though the play fills in many dramatic details, it always sticks close to the historical facts of this disturbing, yet inspiring, true story.
The next play in this collection is Fire in the Bones, about another disturbing episode in Mormon history: the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857 (on September 11 of that year!), an armed group of Mormons dressed as Indians slaughtered around 120 members of a wagon train en route to California, sparing only a few children who were younger than seven. Eventually the Mormon church was forced by the political circumstances to offer up a scapegoat for this crime. One man, John D. Lee, was tried and executed, by firing squad, for his part in this crime, though many others participated. One interesting point of trivia regarding this story: John D. Lee, who was adopted by Brigham Young, is the great, great grandfather of current Utah senator Mike Lee.
The other plays in this collection are Gentle Barbarian, about Russian author Ivan Turgenev, Frere Lawrence, about T. E. Lawrence (the title character of Lawrence of Arabia), and Charades, a modern family drama.
Though Huebener is easily the most famous of these plays (at least within the small world of Mormon drama), every one of these is a gem, and worth reading.
The title play, Huebener, is based on an incredible but not very well known story about Helmuth Hübener (the author, Tom Rogers, decided on a variant spelling to avoid the use of the umlaut), a young German Mormon who wrote and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets within Germany while the Nazis were in power. At the time, the Mormon church was attempting to steer clear of trouble by avoiding any confrontation with the government. In the play, Hübener is opposed and eventually confronted by his local Mormon church leader, who turns him in for his anti-Nazi activity. Hübener was eventually arrested by the Gestapo. Shortly after his arrest, the LDS church publicly and demonstratively excommunicated him. Hübener was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine in 1942. Though the play fills in many dramatic details, it always sticks close to the historical facts of this disturbing, yet inspiring, true story.
The next play in this collection is Fire in the Bones, about another disturbing episode in Mormon history: the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857 (on September 11 of that year!), an armed group of Mormons dressed as Indians slaughtered around 120 members of a wagon train en route to California, sparing only a few children who were younger than seven. Eventually the Mormon church was forced by the political circumstances to offer up a scapegoat for this crime. One man, John D. Lee, was tried and executed, by firing squad, for his part in this crime, though many others participated. One interesting point of trivia regarding this story: John D. Lee, who was adopted by Brigham Young, is the great, great grandfather of current Utah senator Mike Lee.
The other plays in this collection are Gentle Barbarian, about Russian author Ivan Turgenev, Frere Lawrence, about T. E. Lawrence (the title character of Lawrence of Arabia), and Charades, a modern family drama.
Though Huebener is easily the most famous of these plays (at least within the small world of Mormon drama), every one of these is a gem, and worth reading.
January 18, 2012
Confession: I didn't read all the other plays in this book. I just read Huebner. I intend to get to them another time. However, Huebner needs more recognition. Why had I never heard about this hero until recently, when the story took place, like, 4 American Wars ago? Why don't we reference him in church? Is it because we who are members of the church shy away from stories where church leaders are wrong? Where did he get the courage to do what he did, and why am I not more like this brave kid? This is a pioneer story worth reading and celebrating. One boy made a difference.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews