Henry Jaglom’s original play “Train to Zakopane,” starring Tanna Frederick and Mike Falkow, also featuring Cathy Arden, Kelly De Sarla, Stephen Howard, David Proval kicked off its awaited World Premier with style at The Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica on November 21st. The set is incredible and the content is evocative of thought.

Tanna Frederick, staring as a Polish army nurse in Train to Zakopane, most recently had a highly acclaimed one-year run at The Edgemar starring in the hit production of The Rainmaker. Prior to that she also was praised for starring in very long runs of Sylvia (as the title dog in A.R. Guerney‘s classic play) and in Mr Jaglom’s Just 45 Minutes From Broadway and The M Word, among others.

Based on true events that occurred in the life of Jaglom’s father as he crossed Poland on a train in 1928, the moments rendered in the characters’ lives reveal the rampant anti-Semitism of the time and place, particularly in Poland circa 1920’s. There is nothing subtle about the perverse commentary between the cabin mates: a successful Russian businessman (Jaglom’s father played by Mike Falkow), a young Polish army nurse (Tanna Frederick),  a priest (Stephen Howard) and a retired actress who maintains a flair for the dramatics (Cathy Arden). In their own private ways and head to head against one-another they are forced to contend with the history from which deep prejudice can lie, and both the symbiotic relationship and polarizing contradictions between who they each are, where they came from and who they want to become. The play lays out a haunting dilemma through an unrelenting collision of enchantment, anger, resentment and an undying hope for love that affected Jaglom’s father till the end of his life. The story will no doubt affect its audiences for years to come.

Purchase your tickets pronto for Train to Zankopane. Produced by Alexandra Guarnieri and directed by Gary Imhoff, who previously directed Mr. Jaglom’s Always But Not Forever, Just 45 Minutes From Broadway, and A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia at The Edgemar Center for the Arts, this theatre experience will not disappoint.