Ethel Sings – The Unsung Song of Ethel Rosenberg

For those growing up in the 1950’s, the case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were tried and convicted of espionage, was shocking and controversial. Both were sent to the electric chair on June 19, 1953 a day after their 14th wedding anniversary. Joan Beber’s ernest, yet uneven, play examines their lives, mostly through telling Ethel’s story. Will Pomerantz, the director, asks the question in his notes, “why Ethel Rosenberg and why now?” In going over the script, he was struck by how current the issues raised by the play still remain today. “The Rosenbergs were liberals, Jews, labor activists and communist sympathizers in an era of virulent anti-communism and anti-Semitism. Their trial became a show trial for the rise of McCarthyism, and although the actual evidence against them was inconclusive at best, they were found guilty after only two weeks of testimony. They were the only Americans executed for espionage during the entire Cold War, and, at the time of her death, Ethel was only the second woman ever executed by the federal government up to that point in our country’s history.”