Within the dying days of the second world struggle, a secret assembly passed off between the SS chief Heinrich Himmler and Norbert Masur, a German-born Swede and consultant of the World Jewish Congress.
Ben Brown bases this tense drama on that encounter, brokered by a physiotherapist, Felix Kersten, who labored as Himmler’s masseur. Masur sought to steer Himmler to free Jews from terror and incarceration within the focus camps; Himmler was strategising on easy methods to rehabilitate his world popularity within the face of a now inevitable Allied victory, whereas ostensibly staying loyal to Hitler.
Directed by Alan Strachan, this Authentic Theatre firm manufacturing was filmed throughout its run on the Park theatre in London earlier this 12 months and works nicely on display, the digital camera intensifying and focusing its drama. Nazi historical past has been nicely mined for tales however Brown’s finely researched script not often falls into over-familiarity and nonetheless manages to shock.
Richard Clothier’s Himmler is a neat bespectacled man – a wolfish, chillingly well mannered officer in full uniform who insists that he has by no means had the non-public grudge towards Jews that Hitler bears. His actual antagonists, he says, are the “Bolsheviks” however quickly sufficient he's railing over the Jewish presence in Germany, calling it “alien” and blaming it for the losses of the primary world struggle. Clothier offers a placing and sinister efficiency, maintaining a creepily decorous, clipped tone to his voice although we really feel the venom beneath. What's most chilling is his unbending, blinded certainty. Ben Caplan, as Masur, emanates silent horror but additionally a clenched indignation and each males’s performances burn with conviction.
The sometimes arty digital camera pictures are somewhat tacky however the human drama is gripping sufficient to forgive these annoyances. The ultimate scene incorporates a private testimony from Jeanne Bommezjin (Olivia Bernstone), a prisoner who's free of Ravensbrück because of this assembly. Her understated account carries such sorrow but additionally an exhilarating sense of lastly – unbelievably – being liberated.
Post a Comment