''Imagining Madoff'' is a 2010 play by playwright

Deb Margolin Deb Margolin is an American performance artist and playwright. She came to prominence in the 1980s in the feminist political theatre troupe Split Britches, which she co-founded with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw. Margolin has since created a strin ...

that tells the story of an imagined encounter between Bernard Madoff, the admitted operator of what has been described as the largest

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

in history, and his victims. Margolin had originally planned to use Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

as a character representing a victim, but was obliged by legal threats to substitute a fictional character, whom she named Solomon Galkin.

Elie Wiesel's response to the play

Wiesel had been one of Madoff's most notable victims, having lost his life savings to Madoff's fraud in addition to more than $15 million in losses to a charitable foundation Wiesel operated, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, with Wiesel calling Madoff a "thief, scoundrel, criminal". Wiesel had been chosen as a character by Margolin because she felt that he was "synonymous with decency, morality, the struggle for human dignity and kindness". In Margolin's original version of the play, the Elie Wiesel character was intended to be a

moral authority Moral authority is authority premised on principles, or fundamental truths, which are independent of written, or positive, laws. As such, moral authority necessitates the existence of and adherence to truth. Because truth does not change, the princi ...

and key character in the play, in which he recounted his concentration camp experiences and provided meditations on repentance. Margolin sent a copy of the play to Wiesel, who responded in April 2010 with a letter calling the play "obscene" and "defamatory" and threatening legal action to prevent the play from being staged.Healy, Patrick
"The Play on Madoff, Without Wiesel"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 19, 2010. Accessed July 19, 2010. In an interview with

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

on May 20, 2010, attorney Richard Lehv expressed his opinion that Wiesel would have had little chance in court of preventing Margolin from using him as a character, noting that "it's a free country. You can make a public figure a character in a work of fiction."

Productions

The play was originally to have been staged at

Theater J Theater J is a professional theater company located in Washington, DC, founded to present works that "celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy". Organization Hailed by ''The New York T ...

, a Jewish theater in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in May 2010, but was canceled after Wiesel made his objections known.Taylor, Kate
"Play Canceled After Wiesel Objects"
''

'', May 19, 2010. Accessed July 19, 2010. After

Ari Roth Ari Roth (born January 10, 1961) is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator. From 2014 to 2020 Roth served as the Artistic Director of Mosaic Theater Company of DC and was formerly the Artistic Director of Theater J at t ...

, artistic director of Theater J, had offered to submit the play to Wiesel's foundation for review, Margolin objected, viewing the offer as giving Wiesel veto power over the play's content. Margolin called the experience "painful" and said that she was "still scared to talk about it" because of fear of lawsuits, but she felt that she "didn't want to abandon this play". Though the character of Wiesel was formally excised from the play, the replacement character Solomon Galkin, described in the play's script as "80 years old, Holocaust survivor, poet, translator, treasurer of his synagogue", retained most of the dialogue that had originally been planned for the Wiesel character. The revised play premiered in July-August 2010 at Stageworks/Hudson in

Hudson, New York Hudson is a city and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. Located on the east side of the Hudson River and 120 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, it was named for the rive ...

. It ran at Washington's Theater J from August 31 to September 25, 2011. Artistic director Laura Margolis of Stageworks/Hudson has commented that nothing was lost by removing the Wiesel character, and that the new version of the play gave Margolin greater liberties to develop the Galkin character as a person, rather than as representing a famous figure. In a July 2010 article in ''

'', Margolin emphasized that she had never planned "to be on the wrong side of anybody, let alone someone I admire". The

New Repertory Theatre The New Repertory Theatre (New Rep) is a Boston-area regional theater company founded in 1984, it has produced more than 70 East Coast, US, or World premieres. Since 2005 New Rep has been the resident company at the Mosesian Center for the Arts i ...

of Watertown, MA staged the New England premiere in January 2014, which included sixteen sold-out performances. An encore extension was co-presented with the Boston Center for American Performance at the Boston University Theatre-Comley Studio 210 in May-June 2014.

Awards

On February 27, 2012, Deb Margolin's ''Imagining Madoff'' was nominated for the 28th Annual

Helen Hayes Awards The Helen Hayes Awards are theater awards recognizing excellence in professional theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 1983. The awards are named in tribute of Helen Hayes, who is also known as the "First Lady of American Theatre." They ar ...

which celebrates excellence in professional theater in the Washington D.C. area.Playbill.com, accessed on 2/29/12 at: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/160175-DCs-Helen-Hayes-Nominees-Include-Hairspray-Eric-Schaeffer-Jan-Maxwell-Imagining-Madoff

References

{{Madoff investment scandal 2010 plays American plays Plays based on real people Plays based on actual events Plays set in the 21st century Plays set in the United States Cultural depictions of Bernie Madoff Madoff investment scandal