Mrs Gorsky
(Reading at Birminingham Rep Theatre in November 2000)
The play Mrs Gorsky, based on the true story of Judith Coplon, is about the Jewish American Rosa
Gorsky. Being a communist activist she is accused of high treason and conspiracy against the American
government. The play discusses different ways to make a better world, and especially the question: which
way is the right one? Since its protagonists fight in different ways against the United States of America,
Mrs Gorsky is also a critique of this country.
The play takes place from 1969 to 2000 on the east and west coast of the USA and shows Rosa's and her
family's way to live with a twenty year bail and the constant surveillance through the FBI. In the first
act Rosa and her family are on vacation in 1969, where Rosa meets Heidi, a young activist, whom she becomes
friends with. In the last scene the crime which Rosa is accused of is revealed. She tells Heidi that she
is under indictment of high treason as she is accused of having given names of American agents to the KGB.
In the second act, which takes place in 1983, Heidi is arrested and accused of conspiracy. Because she
asks Joe, Rosa's husband, to help her, he finds out that Rosa and Heidi had kept in touch all those years.
The fact that Rosa has never told him about Heidi and that she has never felt as deep for anybody as for
Heidi threatens the relationship of Rosa and Joe. In the first two acts the FBI agent Bud is almost
always present, but Rosa is the only one who seems to notice him. His surreal presence seem to emerge
from Rosa's imagination. Bud tries to find out if she is guilty, but is not successful. That she is
actually guilty becomes clear in the third act, which is set in the year 2000, when Joe has died and
Rosa remembers the day when he proposed to her. On that day she had 'won' the trial, but had to be honest
with Joe and told him the truth. At the end of the third act Rosa goes to California to visit Heidi
in jail.
The two women discuss different ways to 'make a better world' in all three acts. It becomes clear
that Rosa does not approve of armed resistance anymore, in complete contrast to Heidi. She actually
goes underground which leads to her arrest years later. Rosa's lifeline was that her actions would one
day be justified. But she does not regret what she has done since she has always been a true communist.
The only thing she regrets is that there is still too much to do.