The play is set in Germany in 1932 and 1933, and concerns a group of friends caught up in the events of the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
As explained by the character in the 2019 Public Theater production, A Bright Room Called Day was a play he wrote 34 years ago that never worked until Donald Trump was elected and suddenly everyone wanted to produce it, so he decided to give it an update.
[2] The result has been characterized by Kushner and Oskar Eustis (who directed the original Eureka production and the Public Theater revival) as turning the play from a critique of the American right to a discussion on the role of art as social or political action.
In February 2018 a revised version of the play, titled "A Bright Room Called Day (Revisited)", was performed at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts.
The production, using the revised version of the script, featured Nikki M. James as Agnes, Michael Urie as Gregor, Linda Emond as Annabella, Jonathan Hadary as Xillah, and Estelle Parsons as Die Älte, with Michael Esper as Vealtninc, Grace Gummer as Paulinka, Crystal Lucas-Perry as Zillah, Nadine Malouf as Rosa Malek, Mark Margolis as Gottfried Swetts, and Max Woertendyke as Emil Traum.