For once I'm writing about one of my own productions that I hope you'll come to see.
It's a revival I've directed at the Union Theatre of the rather grim sounding FEAR AND MISERY OF THE THIRD REICH. It is in fact a surprisingly funny play written in the early 1930s which is proving to be very relevant to today.
I became fascinated by this play twenty five years ago, when I was a first year acting student and saw the 3rd years perform it and I’ve long wanted to direct it. The only thing holding me back has been concerns that no one would come, seriously threatening the income of some cash strapped venue and its bar! I’m really grateful to Sasha Regan at the Union for giving me this slot and taking the chance!
My attitude towards the play has also changed considerably over the last few months whilst I’ve been prepping the production.
I think I once viewed it as a dramatisation of how some bumbling Germans gave in to the Nazis. Of course once you begin to research that terrible period it becomes abundantly clear that people like us would have had no option but to join the party and buckle under. If you’re interested in any further reading I recommend the novel ALONE IN BERLIN by Hans Fallada, a searing depiction of everyday life at the time and the pressure to conform.
Clara Francis, who plays the wife, has also passed on stories from her Jewish grandmother who lived through it all. The horror can be so overwhelming and hard to relate to that it’s the little details which haunt me. People did indeed stop talking to Jews. This simple fact has been a useful way in for me. Imagine how terrified you’d need to be to completely blank old friends for fear of arrest.
Secondly and most importantly this play has just taken on a horrifying relevance. Not too long ago I was discussing the text with a youth theatre leader who directed the kids in some of these scenes. I asked him if they had found it relevant to our world or merely a period piece. He erred towards the latter. However in the aftermath of the Paris shootings the TV news was full of people, quite understandably calling for violent revenge, as the UK debated how to respond there was death threats on both sides and French politics lurched alarmingly to the far right.
In the last few months it’s become easy to imagine that should, God forbid, terrorists pull off an even bigger attack, one equivalent to the burning down of the German parliament building in 1933, the anger and disarray might draw people once again to extremist politics. No one would want to hear about reasoned pacifism and the thugs and fascists would take centre stage in the aftermath, with few daring to criticise for fear of being a terrorist sympathiser or unpatriotic. In such circumstances the whole country could easily find itself with an extremist leadership claiming to be protecting our interests from a scapegoat minority. Which of us can claim with any certainty that we’d risk our safety, careers and livelihoods to make a stand?
I’m particularly interested in the thuggery Brecht portrays. I’m reminded of a broadcast J.B. Priestly gave during WW2, warning of the kind of bully who’d be allocated leadership under a fascist regime. Violent youths with no empathy, officious bureaucrats, abusive partners and bizarre politicians drunk on self-promotion are all too prevalent around us. Let’s never give them power.
We actually know far more about the full atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis than Brecht did when he wrote these vignettes. They were written independently of each other over a period of time and have been assembled into an evening by Brecht and others in various configurations with additions and deletions over the years. We can find no record of a professional production of the full cycle in the UK although several reliable sources claim they’ve seen one.
The writing often appears startlingly naturalistic and “unbrechtian” on first reading but we soon found that approaching the text and characters as one would naturalism takes rehearsals down a blind alley. The performer needs to think “what am I, what do I represent?”rather “than who am I?” Once we worked out what each character and incident contributed to the overall message we were able to bring them to life.
The style veers between drama, comedy, farce and didactic statement and initially I considered ways to consolidate them into one but soon decided to let each scene have its own playing as style. This isn’t as emotionally satisfying as conventional narrative with a consistent tone but to release the full power of the piece it needs to be presented with all its contradictions. Here is a bourgeois playwright in exile depicting the downfall of his own bourgeoisie by spitting out a series of snapshots conveying his horror and revulsion, the violent shifts in tone reflect that.
If you still have doubts about the pertinence of the play’s message to our world simply imagine the scenes with the word Muslim instead of Jew and you’ll see how dangerously close we are to these ordinary Germans just trying to stay alive. I mentioned this the other day and someone asked me if the Brecht estate would let me make that switch. But I wouldn't want to, Brecht’s warning from the past is abundantly clear.
Our youngest company member is 17 our oldest in their 50s it’s been fascinating to share our perspectives and to integrate them into the production. I asked the designer to create an aesthetic that meshed period detail with our world, with only our narrator figure in full costume from the time. I’m particularly pleased with the emblem he’s come up with to stand in for the swastika: a circle with the words T.M.R.W (tomorrow)
Brecht has given us a warning from the past!
I recently heard from the actress Emma Manton about the chance for you to enjoy a no doubt superb afternoon at the National Theatre and raise money for a good cause.