Gandhi and the Jew

A researched portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and architect Hermann Kallenbach opens Miami New Drama’s 10th anniversary season at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. The world premiere runs select dates November 5-29, with Thursday through Saturday evening performances and Sunday matinees. Written by Harley Elias and directed by Margot Bordelon, the production is the fifth collaboration between Elias and Miami New Drama and the third commissioned premiere developed through the company’s Jewish Play Initiative. Based on years of research, multiple trips to South Africa and hundreds of unpublished letters, Gandhi and the Jew examines the bond between Gandhi and Kallenbach, a Jewish architect whose life was shaped by exile and persecution. The play traces how their friendship intersects with the development of nonviolence, then becomes strained as the rise of antisemitism in Europe and debates over the future of a Jewish state test their shared ideals. As Miami New Drama’s season opener, the production brings a historically rooted story of friendship, political conviction and moral conflict to the company’s Miami Beach stage.