“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking,” says lead character Christopher Isherwood in the Santa Clara Players (SCP) 2026-2027 season-opening production “I Am a Camera,” playing Oct. 30 – Nov. 14.

The award-winning 1951 Broadway drama by London-born playwright John van Druten later inspired the better-known musical “Cabaret,” which opened on Broadway in 1966.

“I Am a Camera” is set in a rooming house in pre-war Berlin in the 1930s. It focuses its lens on the relationships and struggles of the roomers as Hitler’s power rises and antisemitism grows.

“The story is actually about the relationships of several people while the political environment is what is happening around them. It is on the periphery of the lives of the play’s characters,” said veteran SCP Director Robert Casillas. “The tone is [that] of coping with the changes taking place in one’s life as you face the unexpected and make important life decisions.”

Isherwood, one of the two lead characters, is a young English writer. He considers himself an objective observer and recorder of society and narrates the play. He befriends lead character Sally Bowles, a reckless young English cabaret singer who lives for fun.

Roomer Fritz Wendel, a German-Jewish man passing as a Christian, and the wealthy Jewish woman Natalia Landauer fall in love. As relationships develop and the political situation worsens, Underwood can no longer remain passive.

“Isherwood’s story demonstrates that as alluring as passivity and neutrality might be during dangerous, tumultuous times, it is ultimately cowardice that drives the desire to stay back and observe,” said Patrick Idleman, the veteran SCP director and actor who plays Isherwood.

Marel Vazquez, new to the SCP stage, plays Sally Bowles in the part that won American actress Julie Harris her first (of five) Tony Award and helped launch her career.

“This play is more of a love story in the midst of political upheaval than a story about politics, [but] I believe that politics are in everything, and they are inescapable,” said Vazquez. “Try as we might to find comfort and moments of peace in those around us that we love, those precious moments we have are never truly removed or separated [from] politics.”

Sarah Birdsall plays Landauer in a role that brought awards to American Actress Marian Winters in the original Broadway production.

“Natalia makes the choice to speak out against injustice despite the risk to her safety. She teaches us to take risks, even when frightened,” said Birdsall. 

In his directing debut, Assistant Director Johnny Villar said he jumped at the chance to help set the mood of Berlin in the 1930s on stage. He selected period-accurate recordings for incidental music and scene transitions—a soundtrack ranging from Mendelssohn to Marlene Dietrich. Also, Villar plays Clive Mortimer, an American tourist who has a fling with Bowles.

Playwright Van Druten adapted “I Am a Camera” from “Goodbye to Berlin,” a semi-autographical novel published in 1939 by British-American writer Christopher Isherwood, who becomes the lead character in the play.

“This play is being produced at a very important time for us. It shows us what once happened to another country, and we must look at ourselves to decide if we will be observers, action-takers, victims, or just deny what’s happening as it takes place,” said Casillas.

Visit the Santa Clara Players online or call (408) 248-7993 for tickets in the 71-seat Hall Pavilion (behind Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art), 1750 Don Ave. at Warburton Avenue.