Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Opinionist: <em>Fabrik</em>
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 3, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 3, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Photo: Courtesy Nordland Visual Theatre.
Moritz Rabinowitz was a Norwegian Jewish tailor who, after emigrating from Poland in 1911 to escape pogroms, rose from near-poverty to operate one of the largest clothing empires in Norway. Settling in the small fishing village of Haugesund, Rabinowitz, the only Jew in town, spent his few off-hours feverishly writing columns that warned against the danger of an increasingly anti-Semitic Germany. His portents were largely dismissed by everyone except the Nazis themselves, who pegged Rabinowitz as “the leader of the Jewish resistance in Norway” when they invaded in 1940. He is believed to have been beaten to death while in a labor camp.
All this might seem like heavy lifting for a puppet show, but Fabrik, produced by the talented Norwegian expat group Wakka Wakka, is remarkably buoyant. Their delightfully imaginative hour focuses mainly on Rabinowitz’s life in Haugesund on the cusp of the German invasion, when most of his fellow citizens were still blind to what lay on the horizon. As Fabrik inventively chronicles the daily life of Rabinowitz before the war, the horror of what is to come casts a growing shadow over his bourgeois bliss.
By now it’s a familiar narrative, but the three puppeteers in Wakka Wakka make it fresh with their consistently surprising staging, which I won’t spoil much here. Fabrik is distinguished by an elegant design that evokes much with very little, such as an enthralling dream sequence that depicts Rabinowitz as an airplane shot down by friendly Norwegian fire, then kicked into the sea, where he drifts through depths with a piranha-esque Hitler snapping at his heels. In his dream, Rabinowitz manages to driver Hitler away by blowing loudly on an underwater conch, but even in this magical gem of a show, his actual fate can’t be reinvented.
Fabrik continues through February 17th at Urban Stages Theatre [259 West 30th Street]. Tickets cost $25.
Tagged
As
Fabrik
puppet
review
show
theater
theatre
tickets
Urban Stages
Wakka
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Inside a photographer's journey to visit every neighborhood in New York City
What do you see when you record the whole of the boroughs?
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 5, 2026
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
Arts & Entertainment
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
By
Hank Shteamer
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
By
Hannah Frishberg
In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .