OUR CLASS To 12 January 2010.
London.
OUR CLASS
by Tadeusz Slobodzianek in a version by Ryan Craig.
Cottesloe Theatre Upper Ground SE1 9PX In rep to 12 January 2010.
8-10; 12-15; 30-31 Oct, 2-4; 11-14; 16-17; 27-28; 30 Nov, 1-5; 18-19; 21-23; 26; 28 Dec, 7-9; 11-12 Jan 7.30pm
Mat 10; 14; 31 Oct, .4; 14; 17; 28 Nov, 2; 5; 19;23 Dec, 9; 12 Jan 2.30pm
Audio-described 13 Nov, 14 Nov 2.30pm (+Touch Tour 12.45pm).
Captioned 2 Nov.
Runs 3hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS 020 7452 3000.
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets
Review: Carole Woddis 3 October.
The dirty business of ethnic cleansing.
Theatre has long been a forum for exposure of human cruelty. Inevitably the Holocaust has loomed large. Few pieces however have made their devastating impact with such elegance as Our Class by Polish writer/director Tadeusz Slobodzianek.
The tale it relates is not just of the massacre of a Jewish community in Jedwabne, a small Polish town in north east Poland in 1941. Its relevance touches then as now on how neighbours can turn into killing machines.
There is much here reminiscent of Macbeth. Over the years, as the truth has begun to seep out, it has emerged that it was not, as originally attributed, the Nazis who committed the atrocity but the town’s own Polish Catholic `patriots’ - class mates and neighbours of those massacred. Slobodzianek’s fictionalised play, based on real events (and Jan Gross’s book Neighbours) shows how the horror and the ghosts of the crime eat away and infect the lives of all those involved.
Bijan Sheibani’s beautifully controlled and acted production starts with his 10-strong cast at the beginning of a new school year singing and announcing what they want to be when they grow up. As the tale unfolds, early tensions between Catholic and Jew intensify as history invades their lives with occupations first by the Soviets then the Nazis.
Anti-semitism is a given but what Our Class highlights is how personal resentment, opportunism, peer pressure and the fears of small town living – not speaking out because of what the neighbours will say – turn prejudice into genocide.
In such a perfectly tuned ensemble it seems invidious to pick out individuals. Each actor makes their mark. But it will be a long time before I’m able to forget Edward Hogg’s paper-thin, bespectacled Jakub Katz clubbed to death by Rhys Rusbatch’s Rysiek and Jason Watkins’ putative Bishop; Tamzin Griffin’s plain-speaking Zocha, Paul Hickey’s good-looking double-timing Menachem; Lee Ingleby’s terrifyingly patriotic thug destined to become one of the town’s upright citizens and finally Justin Salinger bringing things to a redemptive close as Abram, the boy who escaped to America, became a Rabbi but never forgot his classmates. Simply stunning.
Abram: Justin Salinger.
Heniek: Jason Watkins.
Rachelka (later Marianna): Amanda Hale.
Jakub Katz: Edward Hogg.
Wladek: Michael Gould.
Menachem: Paul Hickey.
Zygmunt: Lee Ingleby.
Zocha: Tamzin Griffin.
Dora: Sinead Matthews.
Rysiek: Rhys Rusbatch.
Director: Bijan Sheibani.
Designer: Bunny Christie.
Lighting: Jon Clark.
Sound: Ian Dickinson.
Music: Sophie Solomon.
Choreographer: Aline David.
Company voice work: Jeanette Nelson.
2009-10-06 00:09:58