A play based on Adolf Hitler's youth is drawing criticism for its opening-night deal: Playgoers willing to wear a swastika during the performance get in free, while those paying full price are asked to wear the Star of David, The New York Times reported.
Opening night for "Mein Kampf" by George Tabori is Friday, the 129th anniversary of the dictator's birth.
Play producers at a theater in Konstanz in the south of Germany hope to spark a national conversation about the dangers of fascism, the Times reported.
But the production or collection of Nazi symbols for public use is illegal — the local public prosecutor's office said it has gotten several complaints about the opening, the Times reported.
"By breaking a taboo, one must bring back the debate," Christoph Nix, who has run the theater for over a decade.
A local group that encourages interfaith dialogue wrote an open letter saying the "bizarre marketing ploy" employed by the theater is "not acceptable," the Times reported.
Nix insisted he never intended to offend any Jews with the promotion.
"We're not talking about the actual piece, we are taking about the tastelessness around the admission," Ruth Frenk, the head of the local German-Israeli Society chapter and a co-signer of the open letter, told the Times.
"I don't think it will make the piece any better."
According to the Times, the play tells the story of a Hitler as young man trying to get established in the Vienna art scene, where he is befriended by an older Jewish man who takes pity on him. It was first performed in Vienna in 1987 and was made into a film in Germany in 2009.
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