Way to Heaven

Synopsis

A concentration camp in Nazi Germany, 1942, where reality and theatricality blur in a chilling exploration of complicity and denial

Juan Mayorga’s haunting play Way to Heaven examines the notorious “model camp” of Theresienstadt through multiple perspectives. The story revolves around a visit by a Red Cross representative to inspect the camp’s conditions. Unbeknownst to him, the entire visit is an elaborately staged deception orchestrated by the camp’s Commandant and reluctantly assisted by Gottfried, a Jewish prisoner appointed as “Mayor”. As the play shifts between the Red Cross visit, its aftermath, and the gruesome rehearsals preceding it, Mayorga forces us to confront the horrifying ease with which atrocity can be masked and normalized.

Through its fragmented structure and metatheatrical elements, Way to Heaven delves deep into themes of moral responsibility, self-deception, and the power of theatre as both a tool for survival and oppression. The Commandant’s intellectual posturing and Gottfried’s agonizing choices highlight the complex nature of complicity in the face of overwhelming evil. By presenting the Holocaust through the lens of a theatrical “production”, Mayorga challenges audiences to examine their own capacity for willful blindness and the dangers of remaining a passive spectator to history’s darkest moments.