STAGE

President Kurt Waldheim’s Austria is once again examining its history--this time by a controversial play that hasn’t opened yet because six actors have walked out of the production. “Heldenplatz” (Heroes’ Square), by Thomas Bernhard, has been labeled “an insult to the Austrian people” by Waldheim because it deals with Bernhard’s opinion that most Austrians are virulent anti-Semites who were overjoyed when Adolf Hitler annexed the country in 1938. There was no reason given for the actors’ departure from the cast, but Bernhard said the play will open Friday without them.