The despicable treatment of disabled people in Nazi Germany sets the historical context for My Sister, Janet Schlapkohl’s two-character play which just opened at the Odyssey Theater. The piece was first produced in L.A. at the 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival where its strong reception attracted the attention of the Odyssey’s artistic director, Ron Sossi, who optioned the play for his company and came aboard as co-director. Changes were made to the script and period songs were added, resulting in a longer, more atmospheric and nuanced story. Set in 1930's Berlin, My Sister focuses on Magda and Matilda, identical twins sharing a dingy, working-class flat but dreaming of artistic success in the years to come. The Odyssey production is lucky to have twin actors Emily and Elizabeth Hinkler in the main roles, if only because they share a chemistry and connection one rarely finds in actors today. Together these youthful siblings light up the tragic darkness in Schlapkohl’s play, giving it a much-needed warmth and humanity. Magda is introduced singing a cabaret song in a Berlin dive; it’s her debut as a featured performer, and she makes the most of her chance, winning the promise of a steady gig at the club. She returns home to exult with Matilda, who is so severely crippled by cerebral palsy that she can barely walk. But Matilda’s mind and spirit are still alive and free, as evidenced by the poems, sketches, and songs that flow so copiously from her pen. She and Magda also share a rich personal life, posturing, joking, and exchanging confidences and hopes with each other, swearing to stay together forever. Life, we soon learn, is not going to allow that to happen. The realization comes slowly to the sisters, living in their little cocoon. Magda, whose day job is cleaning lady in a Berlin hospital, wonders why the Nazis, upon taking control of the nation, are beginning to round up people with disabilities and “disappear” them along with Jews, homosexuals, and Gypsies. She also can’t quite understand why the Nazis have issued edicts banning cabaret performers from singing “alien” songs with a bitter-sweet edge; only healthy, optimistic German folk songs are permitted now. Matilda is the more socially conscious of the two, if only because of her beloved short-wave radio. A constant companion while Magda is away at work, the radio allows her to listen to the uncensored news on the BBC. But not even Matilda can imagine just how brutal and inhuman life is becoming under the Nazis; her ferocious will to live—and her bubbling optimism—won’t allow her to entertain such dark, chilling thoughts. My Sister offers a microcosm of the first years of Nazi Germany; Magda and Matilda can stand for symbols of all those millions of Germans who saw what was coming but didn’t do anything about it until it was too late. The play also deals with its disability theme in a powerful, deeply human and compassionate way.
