Sol Schumann is an aging New York Jew and Holocaust survivor. Loved and admired by all, he’s a warm-hearted pillar of his orthodox synagogue and devoted to his two adult sons, Aaron and Michael. Could the same Sol Schumann have been a capo in a concentration camp, committing terrible crimes against his own people? Having seen his own family murdered before his eyes, did Sol decide he would survive at any cost? Did he lie about his past when applying for United States citizenship?

This world premiere provides the answers, but they aren’t the issue. As in most Jeffrey Sweet plays, the issue is the moral and real consequences of our actions, and how any of us might twist our very humanity when placed between a rock and a hard place. Sweet never draws conclusions for us—we must make our own judgments—but he does insist that someone must answer, someone must be held accountable. In this intense and powerful new work, the sins of the father pass to the sons, and to Aaron in particular.

Sweet is more skillful in craftsmanship than ever before (this is his ninth play at Victory Gardens), creating a thought-provoking social drama that’s also a good night out. This engaging work builds tension like a thriller, and disguises Sweet’s passionately intelligent thinking with pithy, power-packed writing. He benefits from astute direction by Dennis Zacek, and a cast of top Chicago character actors. Zacek moves the compact drama crisply, never betraying Sweet’s neutral tone by lingering too long on a moment or injecting too much sentiment. The decision of Sweet and Zacek to keep the entire cast onstage throughout, provides a second “audience” of silent-but-active witnesses to the action.

Bearish Bernie Landis as Sol is the soul of loving kindness, nonetheless with internal land mines of rage and self-rationalization that vocally and physically explode out of him. Eli Goodman is good-natured Michael, the concerned son and brother who never fully understands the horror that is compromising the family. The other son, a committed Jewish activist, does. As Aaron, Robert K. Johansen gives a sprung steel performance that’s a marvel of concentrated energy, and one the Jefferson Awards Committee should note. Veterans Amy Ludwig, Richard Henzel and Roslyn Alexander provide good work, as always, in supporting roles as do Melissa Carlson Joseph, Kati Brazda and Anthony Fleming III who complete the ensemble.

Designer Mary Griswold’s deceptively simple set combines with Jaymi Lee Smith’s lighting to focus and highlight the action, and assist the play’s cinematic short-scene structure and pacing.