In a dramatic moment, the players re-enact testimony from the Nuremberg Trials, including this recipe:[4] 5 kilos of human fat are mixed with 10 liters of water and 500 or 1,000 grams of caustic soda.
She is soon caught between her sympathies for Saltzman and the adamant stand of a number of distinguished scholars of the Holocaust who refuse to publish the Nazi manufacture of soap as fact despite a large amount of eyewitness testimony, including the eyewitness testimony of both Nazis and British prisoners of war at the Nuremberg trial who worked in the experimental soap manufacturing facility at Danzig in 1944, because contemporary documentation is lacking.
The scholars in the play fear that without proof beyond the eyewitness testimony, the story of the manufacture of soap from human bodies will become ammunition in the hands of Holocaust deniers.
Holocaust historian Robert Melvin Spector concludes that the Nazis "did indeed use human fat for the making of soap at Stutthof," albeit in limited quantity.
That workshop was directed by Larissa Lury with a cast that included Katia Asche, Victor Barbella, Aaron Costa-Ganis, Louise Flaningam and Joel Friedman.
During the week of February 21, 2017, "The Soap Myth" had 5 West Coast readings: @ Marin Academy and Marin Theater Company (San Francisco), @ Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills (LA), University Synagogue in Irvine and at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City (LA).
From January 22 to February 1, 2018, The Soap Myth reading enjoyed a brief tour that included the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami Beach, FL, the Adolph and Rose Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, FL, the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the Zeiterion Theater Performing Arts Center in New Bedford, MA, Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, PA, The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City, New York City, and Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, NY.
In January and February 2019, "concert readings" of The Soap Myth were performed in Baltimore, Wilmington, New York City, Tenafly, NJ and Commack, NY with the following cast: Ed Asner, Tovah Feldshuh, Ned Eisenberg and Liba Vaynberg directed by Pam Berlin.
On July 22, 2019, The Soap Myth was performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with Ed Asner, Tovah Feldshuh, Liba Vaynberg and Ned Eisenberg.
"[11] Time Out New York wrote that the play "touches on a host of compelling issues: irrefutable versus empirical evidence, the subjective shaping of history, institutional agendas and, in its most effective scene, the potential seduction of anti-Semitism."
[12] NYTheater.com, praised its "...dazzling objectivity and even-handedness" and "real moral heft..."[13] The Villager found it compelling, "There are certain movies, plays, books that one wishes would never end.
On April 22, 2019, PBS flagship station WNET filmed a concert reading performance for broadcast on their All Arts channel, at the Center for Jewish History in New York.
Featuring Holocaust survivor Irving Roth and scholars Michael Berenbaum, David Marwell and Bonnie Gurewitsch, it also is distributed online by Digital Theatre.