The Steiner Bookstore tells the story of the famous Steiner Antiquarian Bookshop in Bratislava, Slovakia. It takes place during the anti-Jewish repressions in the early 1940s in the Nazi Slovak state when the antiquarian bookshop was subject to Aryanization, meaning expropriation.

The story is told through the recollections of Lydia Piovarcsyov-Steinerova whose parents perished in a concentration camp. Her father, Jozef Steiner, was the original co-owner of the bookshop. Lydia herself, even after all these years, tries to come to terms with her past, to overcome it by living an active life and understanding the actions of Ludo Ondrejov – the man who, in her eyes, is the real culprit of the Steiner family’s tragedy .

Playwright: Luba Lesna. Director: Alexandra Aron. Cast: Becca L. McLarty, Deborah Beshaw-Farrell, Peter McCabe. Translated by: Julia and Peter Sherwood.

The play is based on true historical facts and on the novel of the same name by Luba Lesna.  

For more information about the event, visit www.rehearsalfortruth.org.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come first-served basis. RSVP through Eventbrite.

The event is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, with support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York.

The event is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.