IWITNESS. To 27 January.

London

IWITNESS
by Joshua Sobol

Finborough Theatre Finborough Pub 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED To 27 January 2007
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 0870 4000 838 (24hr no booking fee)
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk (reduced full-price tickets online)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 January

The moral conscience and the issue are clear; less so the man behind them.
In 2002 some 600 Israelis refused to serve in their country’s armed forces on territory they regarded as belonging rightly to Palestinians. This “noble 600” weren’t drafted-in liberals, artists and dissidents, but experienced army and air-force personnel who had reached the edge of what they could regard as being right.

The same year saw Israeli playwright’s Joshua Sobol’s IWitness. At its centre is Austrian Franz Jagerstatter who, in 1943, refused to join his country’s army and fight for Nazi Germany. Repeatedly here, he’s offered an exit-route out of the otherwise inevitable journey from prison to execution. It’s put in temptingly easy terms: just sign the form and put on the uniform.

Sobel hardly needs to spell out there would be a lot more to it than that, but whether it seems so simple or is going to be the first part in a moral ordeal, the weighting’s all with Jagerstatter. Yet martyrs are made both by cause and personality. Robert Bolt’s A Man for all Seasons' Thomas More reflects this, in however soft a focus.

When the cause is missing, personality is likely to come over in a different light; conscience and cussedness often go hand-in-hand. Either the play or Michael Ronen’s Finborough production for Conflict Zone theatre doesn’t point this up. As events outside the immediate present are effectively glimpsed from within Franz’s mind (which, understandably, is fraught and yet not fully understandable) there’s no objective way of seeing him.

And the main part of his life shown is the women in it, particularly his instantaneous transfer of affection from Margaret to Franca, making it difficult to locate much about him. As all’s fair in love and war both show characters at extremes, especially when the suddenly-rejected woman’s played by Leah Muller, an actor whose intensity could set damp grass on fire.

The central performance presents us with the play’s issue clearly, and emphasises Jagerstatter’s resoluteness, but without giving a sense of what really drives him, whereas, with an idealist, you always need to look beyond the ideals.

Sergeant Bastian/Schreiber: James Henry Parker
Franz Jagerstatter: Mel Raido
Maria: Lucja Nowicka/Natalia Tatarka
Margaret/Ranft: Leah Muller
Franca: Natalie Radmall-Quirke
Dr Raps/Vice-Admiral Arps: Lucinda Millward
Martin/Feldmann/Warden: Jonathan Bryan
Hans/General Mussof/Father Jochmann: Richard Atwill

Director: Michael Ronen
Designer: Nicky Bunch
Lighting: Joshua Tomalin
Music: Yaniv Fridel
Video: Ryan Bexter

2007-01-10 01:12:15