Executive Overview
On the boards of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, a profound and deeply unsettling theatrical experience is challenging Broadway audiences to confront history through an entirely unprecedented lens. Here There Are Blueberries, a gripping documentary play born from the meticulous archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is currently running in New York City, scheduled through January 10, 2027, following an official opening on November 9.
Co-written by Amanda Gronich and directed by Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman, the production delves into the real-life discovery of an extraordinary and chilling photo album. This album, chronicling the daily lives of Nazi officers and administrative staff stationed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, contains no depictions of the horrific atrocities typically associated with the Holocaust. Instead, the images capture perpetrators laughing, casually eating blueberries, playing with dogs, and enjoying leisurely moments of camaraderie against a backdrop of unimaginable industrial slaughter.
Rather than comforting viewers with a clear-cut binary of absolute heroes and unmistakable villains, Here There Are Blueberries forces audiences into a state of profound discomfort. By holding up a mirror to the banality of evil—demonstrating how ordinary human beings could perpetrate extraordinary atrocities while maintaining domestic and social lives—the production serves as both a historical reckoning and an urgent modern-day warning.
This comprehensive report explores the genesis of the production, the harrowing investigative journey undertaken by its creators, the thematic gravity of its performances, and the broader cultural implications of staging such a work at a time when living Holocaust survivors are tragically dwindling in number.
Detailed Chronology: From Museum Archives to the Broadway Stage
The journey of Here There Are Blueberries spans over a decade, transitioning from a chance archival discovery into a Pulitzer Prize finalist script and, ultimately, a major Broadway production.
The Discovery at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
The narrative of the play originates not in a writer’s room, but within the secure, climate-controlled vaults of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C. Archivists received an unexpected package containing a leather-bound photograph album. Upon opening it, they realized its contents offered an unprecedented, deeply disturbing window into the inner workings of Auschwitz.
The album had belonged to Karl Höcker, an adjutant to the Auschwitz commandant Richard Baer. While countless historical photographs document the arrival ramps, the selections, and the victims of the camp, Höcker’s album filled a glaring, surreal gap: it documented the leisure time of the perpetrators. Across hundreds of meticulously preserved snapshots, SS officers, administrative personnel, and even visiting dignitaries from Berlin were seen smiling, relaxing, and partaking in recreational activities. Most infamously, one sequence of photographs showed young women—female SS civilian workers known as Helferinnen—laughing while spooning blueberries out of bowls.
The Creative Hesitation
When director Moisés Kaufman—co-founder of the Tectonic Theater Project and renowned for documentary-style works like The Laramie Project—first approached co-writer Amanda Gronich with the concept of turning this archival discovery into a play, Gronich’s initial reaction was one of outright rejection.
"Absolutely not, it is impossible to make a play about this," Gronich recalled telling Kaufman. The conceptual hurdle was immense: how does one dramatize the Holocaust without showing the victims, while simultaneously focusing human empathy—even momentarily—on the faces of the perpetrators?
However, over months of collaborative research, interviews with museum archivists, historians, and descendants of those pictured, the creative team realized that the absence of victims in the photographs was precisely the point. It was a testament to the compartmentalization of the human mind, illustrating how perpetrators could commit industrialized genocide by day and enjoy idyllic social gatherings by night. Four years after the show premiered to critical acclaim in California, and following a prestigious designation as a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Gronich has expressed profound gratitude that she moved past her initial instincts.
Development, Regional Premieres, and Broadway Arrival
Before arriving at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Here There Are Blueberries underwent rigorous development through workshop productions and regional runs, most notably at La Jolla Playhouse. The creative methodology employed by Kaufman and Gronich—rooted in Tectonic Theater Project’s signature investigative techniques—relied heavily on verbatim transcripts, interviews with the actual museum curators who unboxed the album, and deep dives into the psychological profiles of the men and women in the pictures.
The production officially opened on Broadway on November 9, securing a limited engagement slated to run through January 10, 2027. The timing of the run has added an extra layer of emotional resonance, particularly following a milestone performance on November 5, when the cast and crew welcomed 19 Holocaust survivors to the Barrymore Theatre for an unforgettable evening of shared testimony and community.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Anatomy of Modern Complicity
To fully grasp the cultural weight of Here There Are Blueberries, one must examine the metrics of historical memory, the fading presence of eyewitness testimony, and the psychological mechanics that the play seeks to expose.
The Vanishing Generation of Survivors
We are currently living through a critical historical pivot point: the transition from "lived memory" to "historical memory." According to demographic studies tracking Holocaust survivors worldwide, the population of living survivors is rapidly declining due to advanced age.
This reality underscores the urgency captured by Moisés Kaufman during the November 5 performance. "Each year, fewer survivors remain to share their testimony," Kaufman remarked. "This play is about how we look at history, and the responsibility to bear witness. The presence of these 19 human beings was a reminder that these events are not distant. They live on in the people who survived them, and in the stories they have shared to the generations that follow."
When 19 survivors attended the November 5 performance, they were greeted by the cast and an extended standing ovation from the audience. During the curtain call, actor Frances Chalfant delivered a poignant tribute:
"To our honored guests, your courage, your resilience, and your willingness to share your stories are gifts beyond measure. We are deeply humbled by your presence, and profoundly grateful that you have joined us for this performance."
The Psychology of "The Selfie" and Moral Compartmentalization
One of the most striking dramaturgical choices in Here There Are Blueberries is its direct engagement with the concept of visual documentation. In an era dominated by social media, smartphones, and curated self-image, the photographs taken by the SS officers bear an eerie resemblance to modern digital curation. They are, effectively, historical "selfies" of perpetrators documenting their own leisure.
As Amanda Gronich reflected during discussions with the press:
"If we can ask audiences to step inside the selfies of an SS officer… and we can do that in a theatrical, dramatic way, what an unforgettable experience."
This theatrical framing forces the audience into an uncomfortable psychological space. By presenting the perpetrators not as snarling, one-dimensional monsters from a Hollywood movie, but as ordinary-looking men and women who enjoyed music, nature, and shared meals, the play dismantles comforting psychological defenses. It asks the viewer to confront a chilling question: If placed in that exact social structure, under those exact pressures, who would I have been?
Official Statements and Artistic Perspectives
The creative team and principal cast members of Here There Are Blueberries have been vocal about the societal necessity of the production, emphasizing that the play is not merely a historical artifact, but an active inquiry into contemporary human nature.
Conrad Ricamora on Audience Discomfort
Tony nominee Conrad Ricamora, who portrays a descendant of one of the Nazi officers documented in the archival photographs, spoke candidly about the emotional contract between the stage and the audience:
"I think it’s important for audiences to be uncomfortable because it makes you question who could you be in this story without even knowing it."
Ricamora’s perspective highlights the core thesis of the drama: evil rarely presents itself with horns and pitchforks. Instead, it often wears the cloak of institutional obedience, social conformity, and administrative normalcy. By making the audience squirm in their velvet Broadway seats, the production successfully disrupts passive spectatorship, transforming theatergoers from detached observers into active moral examiners.
Moisés Kaufman on the Burden of Witnessing
Director Moisés Kaufman has consistently framed his body of work—from The Laramie Project to Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde—around society’s capacity for cruelty and prejudice. With Here There Are Blueberries, Kaufman directs his lens toward the bureaucratic architecture of genocide.
Kaufman’s insistence that the production honor both the historical reality of the archive and the fragile presence of living survivors underscores a directorial philosophy rooted in absolute moral responsibility. The theatre, in Kaufman’s vision, serves as a civic town hall where uncomfortable truths can be aired, examined, and carried forward into the collective consciousness.
Future Outlook: The Legacy of Blueberries in Contemporary Theatre
As Here There Are Blueberries continues its run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre through January 10, 2027, its impact on the broader theatrical and educational landscape is already coming into focus.
Educational Integration and Archival Partnerships
Given its direct origins in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the play is expected to serve as a vital text for educational outreach programs, university theatre departments, and historical societies. The methodology of adapting archival documents into verbatim theatre offers a powerful blueprint for how artists can tackle complex historical trauma without resorting to sensationalism or sentimentality.
The Evolution of Documentary Theatre
The success of the production solidifies the vital role of documentary and verbatim theatre in the 21st century. At a time when public discourse is increasingly fragmented by misinformation, polarization, and historical revisionism, works grounded in verifiable archival evidence provide an essential anchor to objective reality. Here ThereAre Blueberries demonstrates that the stage can be a rigorous site of historical investigation, holding history accountable while challenging modern audiences to examine their own ethical responsibilities.
Final Reflections
Ultimately, Here There Are Blueberries transcends the boundaries of standard Broadway fare. It is a sobering, necessary meditation on human nature, institutional complicity, and the ease with which ordinary people can normalize the unthinkable. By refusing to let the audience off the hook, the production ensures that the ghosts of Auschwitz—and the chillingly ordinary faces of those who enabled its horrors—continue to demand our attention, long after the final curtain falls at the Barrymore Theatre.
