THEATRE REVIEW: Fear And Misery Of The Third Reich - St Luke's Bombed Out Church, Liverpool.

Theatre Right is possibly Liverpool’s newest theatre company and what better way to make a splash by taking a powerful, dramatic work by one of the greatest ever playwrights and presenting it in the awesome open-air venue that is the bombed out church of St. Lukes with a fresh, modern take by a talented ensemble?

The modern take was the comparison of 1930’s Nazi Germany with Putin’s Russia of today and whilst there are many clear parallels, from the aggressive invasion of a neighbouring state to suppression of freedom at home, there was a huge irony. Brecht was writing as a communist sympathiser, inspired by a visit to Moscow and decrying fascist dictatorship; Putin, born into Stalin’s Russia, cut his teeth as a KGB officer and has never renounced Marxism or communism. That aside, it was curious watching a play about the Nazi regime performed in a venue which had actually been destroyed by the Luftwaffe (although they had fortunately left the walls standing).

            

The play was certainly performed in Brechtian style with all the cast in plain grey outfits, minimalist props and frequent interspersions of music, ranging from the Sex Pistols to '60’s hippy tunes. Brecht’s plays had political messages and he wanted to ensure his messages were not lost in the drama of the various times in which his plays were set. There was also the curiosity of hearing people talking as Germans living under Hitler with all that that entailed yet all with (as least at times) strong Liverpool accents! This was surely though no oversight and served to ground the horrors of the 1930s with what is happening in the present day, notably in Russia and Ukraine.

'Fear And Misery Of The Third Reich’ is actually a collection of connected playlets focussing on the lives of everyday, ordinary people with no depiction of any historical characters. No specific historic events, such as Kristallnacht, are depicted either. This really was a play from the perspective of the public. The various scenarios observed ranged from ‘undesirables’ placed in a prison labour camp to factory workers being used for propaganda purposes to couples experiencing the growing realisation of the dangers of being in a relationship where one of them is a Jew.

With hard-hitting scenes and engaging dialogue, the effective micing-up of the cast was a wise move, ensuring the power of the words was not lost. All five members of the cast were able to convey a variety of characters, with life under the Third Reich examined from various angles. In a long conversation on the telephone, Samantha Alton brought over the anguish and anxiety of trying to come to terms with life under the ‘new order’. Mary Savage as a Work Camp guard hinted at the overt brutality of the Nazi regime. There was even an element of comedy with Reginald Edwards as the compere at a Propaganda rally continually putting a positive gloss on the lives of various workers, for whom life was clearly not as rosy as the Nazis wanted everyone to believe. Liam Powell-Berry brought over the mental-tangles of individuals who clearly wanted to believe in the Nazis despite what they saw around them whilst Megan Thorne went from a brutalised prisoner to a Nazi equivalent of a ‘hero of Socialist Labour’

            

This was a consummate production, atmospherically directed by Anthony Procter and making full use of the central performance area. The play sufficiently distanced itself from 1930’s Germany whilst starkly presenting what life for ordinary people was like under the Nazis. That is surely what Bertholt Brecht would have wanted.

Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 2.9.22