Deb Margolin's play "Imagining Madoff" digs into the deep issues that live in the edges of our lives. Do I really know this person, can I trust them?
Her play examines the relationship between a Torah scholar, here named Sol Galkin, but the character is based on famed author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and an imaginary Bernie Madoff, based on the infamous financial scammer who cheated thousands out of their life savings.
She said, "I really do think theater is at its best, when it asks who are these people? When I don't understand someone, I just write them a monologue, that's the power of theater.
C. David Frankel, Tampa Repertory's Artistic Director said the play is not a historical biography.
"She's using these figures to get at issues that really transcend the particulars of what Madoff did. That's sort of a stand-in for all kinds of moral and ethical issues."
Margolin said she writes for theater because she wants to know who people are and "this is the best and deepest way to investigate it."
Tampa Repertory Theatre is putting on the play at USF in Tampa (TAR 120), which stars Jim Wicker, C. David Frankel and Joanna Syzc. The performances run Thursdays-Sundays from now until January 25th.
