After its sold-out run at Brooklyn Academy of Music in winter 2024, the off-Broadway production “Our Class,” by Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek, and helmed by Ukrainian-born, Jewish director Igor Golyak, will transfer to Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater (136 E. 13th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues) in Manhattan for a limited run September 12-November 3. It will be immediately followed by Golyak’s adaptation of “The Merchant of Venice” November 22-December 22 featuring the same cast. As wars rage in Israel and Gaza, and in Ukraine, neighbor fights neighbors, and antisemitism rises across the globe, these two plays are acutely relevant and timely, and together comprise a powerful four-month artistic residency Arlekin in New York, presented by MART Foundation.

“Our Class” follows ten Polish classmates, five Jewish and five Catholic, growing up as playmates, friends, and neighbors, who then turn on one another with life and death consequences. The piece comes at a time when the world is facing an increase in antisemitism across the globe. Our Class was a featured production of the 2024 Under the Radar Festival and has received multiple award nominations: a Drama League Award Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play; an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play (Gus Birney); and a Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Projection and Video Design (Eric Dunlap).

Critics raved about the New York Premiere production of “Our Class” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The Wall Street Journal cheered, “An epic and intimate drama…stark and uncompromising,” and the Boston Globe agreed, saying “this production is a dead-serious indictment of antisemitism and bigotry from a dizzyingly kaleidoscopic array of angles. The entire cast is excellent!”

“Our Class” is the first of two productions that comprise Arlekin in Residency at Classic Stage Company, directed by Igor Golyak, playing back-to-back on the Lynn F. Angelson stage.

The second is a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” Adapted by Golyak and starring Richard Topol as Shylock, the play will feature much of the same cast as “Our Class.” “The Merchant of Venice” will be performed for the first time in New York November 22-December 22.

The cast of “Our Class” features Gus Birney (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) as Dora, Andrey Burkovskiy (Call DiCaprio!) as Menachem, José Espinosa (Take Me Out) as Rysiek, Tess Goldwyn (New Amsterdam) as Zocha, Will Manning (As Reaper in the Summer Gain) as Heniek, Stephen Ochsner (Chicks) as Jakub Katz, Alexandra Silber (Fiddler on the Roof) as Rachelka/Marianna, Richard Topol (Indecent; The Normal Heart) as Abram, Ilia Volok (Gemini Man, The Gaaga) as Władek and Elan Zafir (Hedda Gabler) as Zygmunt.

Much of the company will return for “The Merchant of Venice.” Richard Topol will play Shylock, joined by Birney, Espinosa, Goldwyn, Ochsner, and Alexandra Silber as Portia. Additional casting to be announced.

The creative teams consist of artists from New York and across the world. For Our Class, scenic designer Jan Pappelbaum of the Schaubuehne, сostume design by Sasha Ageeva, lighting design by Adam Silverman, music by Oscar® winner Anna Drubich (Navalny), music direction by Lisa Gutkin, projections design by Eric Dunlap, chalk drawings design by Adreea Mincic, choreography by Or Schraiber, intimacy design by Leana Gardella, hair & makeup design by Timur Sadykov, and dramaturgy by Dr. Rachel Merrill Moss. Kyra Bowie is the production stage manager. Helmed by Golyak, this cross-cultural collaboration between actors, designers, producers, artists and technicians is an effort to untangle traumas of the past and wrestle with these same questions of today. Our Class is co-executive produced by MART’s
Sofia Kapkova and Arlekin’s Sara Stackhouse.

Stackhouse also executive produces The Merchant of Venice.

The Arlekin Residency at Classic Stage Company (September 12–December 22) is helmed by Arlekin artistic director Igor Golyak and producing director Sara Stackhouse (The Orchard; Just Tell No One; State vs. Natasha Banina), in partnership with Sofia Kapkova of MART Foundation.