Vanessa Redgrave, foe of ‘Zionist hoodlums,’ will play Holocaust survivor onstage

Oscar winner and longtime Israel critic Vanessa Redgrave has lined up her next role — a Holocaust survivor — in a play that will run off-Broadway in New York.

The 75-year-old, who famously lambasted “Zionist hoodlums” during her 1978 Oscar acceptance speech, will play the part in “The Revisionist,” opening Feb. 6 at New York City’s Cherry Lane Theater.

Penned by and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg, a 2011 Oscar nominee for “The Social Network,” the production follows a Jewish-American writer on a trip to Poland, where he hopes the change of scenery will help cure a case of writer’s block. While there, he meets Maria, an elderly cousin to be portrayed by Redgrave. “The play explores their relationship,” the New York Times reports, “which becomes complicated as Maria reveals the details of her post-war past.”

Producers appear to have high hopes for the show, which follows a successful run for Eisenberg’s previous off-Broadway play, “Asuncion.” The two stars are available to remain in the show for at least 10 weeks, a lengthy run by the standards of most off-Broadway productions.

Redgrave, who remains an outspoken advocate of Palestinian causes, also played a Jewish character in her most recent stage performance, as the title character in a 2010 Broadway revival of “Driving Miss Daisy.”

She won her Oscar for playing an anti-Nazi activist in “Julia,” a 1977 film released the same year as “The Palestinian,” a documentary about the PLO she financed and narrated.