Beware of Pity, the touring co-production of Complicité and Schaubühne, offers a dazzling vision of ethical crisis. Director Simon McBurney’s adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s 1939 novel (Ungeduld des Herzens) compellingly explores the social implications and consequences of individual sentiments without lapsing into heavy-handed allegory.

The play begins in London on the cusp of World War II, but mostly occurs on the eve of the first. A sense of impending catastrophe looms over the drama, as the distinguished soldier Anton Hofmiller – charismatically played by Christoph Gawenda – narrates the memory of a tragic love affair.