'Here There Are Blueberries' Broadway review — docudrama masterfully confronts the mundanity of evil

Read our review of Here There Are Blueberries, the Broadway transfer of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play that previously ran off Broadway in 2024.

Summary

• Here There Are Blueberries is a docudrama about a photo album from Auschwitz depicting Nazis in their downtime
• The ensemble cast masterfully plays museum archivists deciding how to ethically investigate and display the album, as well as people past and present affected by this debate
• The extraordinary play asks audiences to confront the ordinary side of evil as they look at the real-life photographs and hear the actual words of the archivists and others
• The show is recommended for history buffs with an interest in WWII and the Holocaust, fans of movies like Zone of Interest, and fans of documentaries and docudramas like The Laramie Project, from the same company behind Blueberries

Here There Are Blueberries begins with a museum employee giving a speech about how important the introduction of compact, portable cameras was in the 1930s, noting that Germans particularly embraced them. As the actor tells us, “Amateur photographers, taking pictures everywhere, become history’s most willing recorders.” Several photos flash on the screen, each punctuated with a click. They feature German families on vacation, until suddenly, swastika armbands appear, almost casually, in the photos. The actor then declares what we can take as a motto for the entire play: “Asserting ordinariness in the face of the extraordinary is, in itself, an immensely political act.”

The play, written by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich and devised with Kaufman's Tectonic Theater Project, is a piece of documentary theatre, following archivists at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who are sent an intriguing, disturbing, and historically significant artifact: the private photo album of an Auschwitz official. Rare enough in itself, the details make it even eerier, since the photographs exclusively feature Nazi officers; there are no prisoners in sight.

The album offers a terrifying portrait of the everyday, “ordinary” life of the Nazis, including them relaxing and celebrating at a lodge on the concentration camp compound. An especially haunting set of photos features young women who worked as telephone, telegraph, and radio operators for the SS. In one photo, they are enjoying a holiday at the lodge, smiling and eating blueberries (the photo’s handwritten caption gives the play its title). The album is disturbing, stomach-turning, and hard to face; for us, it is impossible to ignore the magnitude of the genocide happening mere feet away, always intentionally out of frame.

Almost immediately, the museum employees debate how they should handle the album: Will displaying it humanize the perpetrators of the Holocaust? Archivist Rebecca Erbelding (an outstanding Delia Cunningham), the first to receive the album and the play’s central figure, successfully argues that we can learn a great deal from it. A large portion of the play’s action narrativizes the academic labor of researching the album; the often thematic, not necessarily chronological structure is artfully arranged and highly impactful. The archivists figure out the album was owned by Karl Höcker, the assistant to the head of Auschwitz. Erbelding takes the album to the press, who glom on to the chilling details, and soon descendants of the officers in the photos come out of the woodwork to confront their dark family history.

Kaufman’s direction is spot-on, and he crafts the piece with subtlety and poise. Here There Are Blueberries was devised by a troupe, so it comes as no surprise that it’s an ensemble piece, with each actor portraying multiple roles. The cast is cohesive and effective as a unit, but Conrad Ricamora, Montego Glover, Michelle Beck, and especially Kathleen Chalfant stand out, bringing remarkable depth to each of their parts. We are deftly guided along by Cunningham, and with her we are in excellent hands.

The photographs themselves are the other major character, thoughtfully rendered by projection designer David Bengali and inventively spread upon Derek McLane’s set. Adding further context to the photos, the actors do some live foley sound design — accordion and bell playing, laughing, scraping spoons on blueberry bowls — transporting us, unsettlingly, into the world of the photographs.

Here There Are Blueberries is a masterpiece, a stirring, evocative, and politically urgent work of art that exposes what happens when evil becomes ordinary. It teaches us that we cannot sit idly by, we cannot pass on the blame, and we cannot look away.

Here There Are Blueberries summary

In 2007, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum received an album featuring photographs from 1944 taken at Auschwitz. There are no prisoners in the photos, only Nazi officers. Photographs from Auschwitz are incredibly rare, so this represents a major archival discovery.

The museum archivists, after receiving the album, must decide whether to display and include it in their archive, since the museum aims to focus on the Holocaust's victims, not its perpetrators. The archivists' decisions spur ethical questions and lead them down research rabbit holes as they try to work out who and what the album depicts.

Here There Are Blueberries was conceived by Moisés Kaufman, written by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, and devised by Tectonic Theater Project (of The Laramie Project fame). The play premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 2022, played at New York Theatre Workshop in 2024, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year.

What to expect at Here There Are Blueberries

Here There Are Blueberries is an undeniably difficult piece to stomach. It deals with extremely sensitive material around genocide and fascism, which can feel terrifyingly close to home. The 90-minute play forces the audience to constantly confront images of Nazis smiling and enjoying life, while the prisoners they murdered are out of sight. But the inherent discomfort in looking at them, and the upsetting nature of the images themselves, is entirely the point of the play. It exists to interrogate these images, to think through what should be done with them and what we can learn from them.

In a particularly moving moment, the back walls of McLane’s set retract, and we hear a speech by Lili Jacob (Cunningham), an Auschwitz survivor who found the only other album of photos from the camp, this one full of images of prisoners being separated on the railway tracks and awaiting gas chambers. Shockingly, they capture the day she and her family arrived. The monologue is one of the most emotional parts of the play, and it points to the magnitude of the violence hidden within the Höcker album — and all it does not show.

What audiences are saying about Here There Are Blueberries

Audience reactions to Here There Are Blueberries have been very positive, with many noting how important, timely, and emotional it is. As of writing, the Broadway production had an 87% audience approval rating on Show-Score, a review aggregator.

• “Emotionally devastating. I was crying 10 minutes in. This show is so real and raw and important right now.” - Show-Score user Marisa Gadilauskas
• “Important true story that everyone should see if interested in truth and human possibilities, both good and bad.” - Show-Score user Patrick M 4
• “A very important and poignant historical play…which will absolutely keep you on the edge of your seat and give you food for thought. Absolutely a phenomenal experience” - Show-Score user Theatre geek
• “A frank, devastating reminder of the banality of evil that resonates with our society today.” - Show-Score user Harry A.

Read more audience reviews of Here There Are Blueberries on Show-Score.

Who should see Here There Are Blueberries

• Fans of documentary theatre that explores real-life events, including Tectonic’s earlier work including The Laramie Project, will enjoy the play and Tectonic's signature style.
• History buffs with a special interest in World War II and the Holocaust will appreciate the perspective the play offers, both about the research process and about the history of Auschwitz.
• Anyone with a personal relationship to Holocaust history will likely find the play difficult but rewarding to watch.
• Fans of the film Zone of Interest will likely also have interest in the play, which explores a similar historical situation and perspective.

Learn more about Here There Are Blueberries on Broadway

Here There Are Blueberries is an extraordinary piece of theatre — a vital, gut-wrenching work of art that forces us to look directly at evil, sit with it, and reflect on what it means to be surrounded by horror.

Learn more and get Here There Are Blueberries tickets on New York Theatre Guide. Here There Are Blueberries is at the Barrymore Theatre through January 10.

Photo credit: Here There Are Blueberries on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)