The story of Bonhoeffer, Nazi resistance martyr, at Seattle's Taproot Theatre

"We have learned a bit too late in the day that action springs not from thought but from a readiness for responsibility."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison when he penned those words. He and others were being held responsible for an act of great courage and daring: their plot to assassinate German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

How did a young Lutheran pastor and pacifist theologian (born in Germany in 1906) come to be part of such a conspiracy? Why has he since become an internationally revered martyr, and an inspiration to such leaders as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu?

Some answers may lie in the play "The Beams Are Creaking" by Douglas Anderson, which begins a run at Taproot Theatre on Friday.

Anderson, now the artistic director of the Town Hall Theatre in Middlebury, Vt., says his script covers a span of Bonhoeffer's extraordinary life from his return to Germany after an eye-opening stint studying in the U.S. to his transformation into a faith-fueled activist and convicted conspirator.

It also alludes to his protest of the German Lutheran Church's failure to resist fascism, and his work as a kind of traveling ambassador for the German resistance movement.

Anderson first became familiar with Bonhoeffer's saga and his writings (some published posthumously) as a theater and religion major at Kenyon College in Ohio.

"My senior year I was reading Bonhoeffer, mainly the book 'Letters and Papers from Prison,' " Anderson explained by phone from Vermont. "It's a beautiful, meditative book, full of wonderful, profound ideas and poetry and the thoughts of a man who knows he's approaching his death.

"The lesson for beginning playwrights in this is, start with a good story and an amazing character."

Researching Bonhoeffer, he was struck by some telling details of his life that he incorporated into the play, which debuted at Kenyon in 1976 and won student-writing prizes.

One of those details was the powerful effect the theologian's first visit to America had on his beliefs. "He spent a lot of time in Harlem, in black churches," said Anderson, "and was so moved by how religion seemed to permeate the lives and feelings of the people there."

He also discovered that Bonhoeffer's large (and staunchly anti-fascist) family was musical, so he included a scene in which they perform a cantata in honor of their father's birthday.

Another incident woven in was Bonhoeffer's delight when African-American track star Jesse Owens upset Nazi expectations by winning gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

But Act 2 is devoted mainly to Bonhoeffer's two years in prison, where he wrote, ministered to fellow prisoners and earned the affection and admiration of his jailers.

Anderson said, "I wanted to write a play that left room for not just the assassination plot, but what it meant to him to be thrown in jail and have the time to think through the meaning of life, his relationship with the divine, his family."

The title of the play, "The Beams Are Creaking," came from a password used among the assassination conspirators. "Their thought was, you kill Hitler too early in his regime, then another Hitler may take his place. You also shouldn't wait too late, until the war ends and the country might be overrun by the Russians."

Continued Anderson, "When the beams creak is when the roof is making noises like it's about to cave in. People are becoming aware, and it's the right time then to act."

Bonhoeffer is now viewed as a hero throughout Europe. In Berlin, a street is named after him. And the 2010 biography "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy," by Eric Metaxas, is sparking new interest in his life.

"The Beams Are Creaking" has had no big-profile productions, "but it's had this 30-year life playing colleges, churches — not long ago, a church in Manila. Certain people are just drawn to Bonhoeffer's story," Anderson said.

What the theologian represents, Anderson suggests, "is that you can't profess what you believe only on Sunday, you have to act on your beliefs. That transcends any particular religion. It's why his story is meaningful worldwide."

Bonhoeffer was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945. A month later, Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com