In my favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel, Mother Night , the author writes early on, “This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Vonnegut’s story involves an American spy who works as a double agent for the Nazis, broadcasting fascist propaganda. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t go well for him.

In Dianne Nora’s Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin , now in its local premiere at A Red Orchid Theatre under Dado’s direction, a different genocidal regime is under consideration, and a different fictitious identity is being crafted. But the moral is the same: nobody survives playing along with murderous dictatorships. You’ll lose your life or

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