Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek asks a lot from the cast of "Our Class" as well as the audience. Initially, these demands are the engaging ones of challenging theater; eventually they change to the burdens of an endurance exercise where drama has given way to routine documentary.
True, "Our Class" is historical theater in which the crucial elements of an event -- the execution of the Jewish residents of the town of Jedwabne, Poland, in 1941 -- are the foundation for a wider examination of their meaning through the tools of theater. Yet, in Act 2 of this almost three-hour play at Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Mr. Slobodzianek abandons those tools for the "talking heads" style of a PBS documentary, and the searing drama of Act 1 dissipates.
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