WOMAN IN THE MOON: Synopsis

Act One:

Scene One:

Young Thea wants to become an author and an actress. She sells her first story at the age of nine and her first novel at the age of sixteen. Over the objections of her tyrannical father—the first of many men who try to stifle her ambitions—she begins acting. Four years later, she has a best-seller, and she is in love with her leading man, Rudy. But the First World War closes many theatres. Rudy proposes they marry on condition she give up her career as an actor.

Scene Two:

After four years of languishing in regional repertory, Rudy declares they will move to Berlin so he can be in the movies. She detests the movies, but Rudy prevails. After the war, film producer Joe May announces he will film one of her novellas. Thea furiously objects, but for the sake of Rudy’s film career, she capitulates—and discovers a new talent: screenplay writing. May then pairs her with young director Fritz Lang to script her novel The Indian Tomb. Their collaboration sparks, and one night, Lang’s drunken wife, Lisa, catches them in bed. Weary of Lang’s infidelities, Lisa takes her own life.

Scene Three:

Haunted by Lisa’s suicide, Thea buries herself in work and authors a string of successful films that make her a celebrity. Lang, now her husband, is jealous of her success and demands she write only for him. Their films succeed, but their marriage deteriorates. Eventually, she falls in love with a young graduate student and freedom-fighter from India, Ayi Ganpat Tendulkar. One night, Lang catches them in bed together, signaling the end of their marriage. Meanwhile, the Nazis have come to power, and a terrified Lang demands Thea flee Germany with him, but she naively dismisses his fears as mere fairy tales designed to frighten children.

—Intermission—

Act Two:

Scene Four:

Divorced from Lang, Thea secretly marries Tendulkar and begins directing, but her films offend the censors. Josef Goebbels intervenes, but she must abandon directing to focus solely on screenwriting. She and Tendulkar are blissfully happy, but after Kristallnacht, she is called in for questioning about Tendulkar. Fearful for his safety, she regretfully sends him back to India. She continues assisting the other Indian students in Berlin, but they argue she can be of little help unless she joins the Nazi party. Reluctantly, she does, but when the war ends, she is arrested as a party member.

Scene Five:

The British ban her from motion pictures for four years because of her support for the Indians and the Free India Movement. Almost broken, her survivor spirit reasserts itself, and she joins the Trümmerfrauen, the “Rubble Women” clearing Berlin of war debris. Four years later, she begins rebuilding her film career, and in 1954, she is honored at the Berlinale Film Festival. Tragically, she falls when leaving the festival—a fatal accident that freezes her reputation and achievement until the present day.