SCHWEYK IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. To 15 March.
Manchester
SCHWEYK IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
by Bertolt Brecht translated by Suzan Davies Music by Hanns Eisler
Library Theatre To 15 March 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 15,19,22,26 February,1,8,15 March 2.30pm
Runs 3hr One interval
TICKETS 0161 236 7110
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 February
A miffed opportunity: there's understanding but the production lacks comic vigour.Brecht and his collaborators updated the title character of Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek's comic novel The Good Soldier Schweik to Nazi-invaded Czechoslovakia, giving the crafty little-man survivor a hero's role. Compared with the experience of actual Czechs, the safely-asylumed Brecht allows his characters an easy time. Even the casually-mentioned offstage torture has a comic edge. Life under Hitler's thumb was never this easy. Still, the point is to debunk pretensions of power and historical destiny. It's a point Chris Honer's Library production makes to some degree.
The central McGuffin's believable enough, involving attempts to get some sausage-meat into foodie Baloun's craving stomach. It's this leads to Schweyk - a model of apparent simplicity in Robert Horwell's straight-backed, deliberately flat-voiced portrayal - tying Gestapo and SS alike in logical knots as the action switches between pub, Gestapo HQ and a park (for the complex dognapping of a collaborator's posh pet).
There's a curious hesitancy to the production. Partly it's technical: the Library's stage has limited facilities and some hefty scene-shifting's needed whenever locations change. But there's a pall over the performances too. Cues are often sluggish, lines seem spoken in isolation: though the long (an hour and three-quarters) first act's largely set in a pub, there's little sense of ease, or specifically-focused tension when the Nazis enter.
A lot of comic energy and wit gets dissipated in a static staging. Characters seem generalised in posture and expression when not actually speaking. There's little sense of chat flowing between the pub regulars, nor of conniving behind the Master Race's back.
Things improve when Schweyk's sent to Russia: the final scene, sending a lost Hitler waltzing in a directionless delirium, suddenly has force (the oversize, masked grey-faced Nazi bosses are a sinister plus in each of their framing scenes). Eisler's splendid score deserves the good singing voices Honer has found, but fine tones aren't matched by forceful acting. Only the final chorus – where even the gradually denuded, collapsed Hitler rises as just one of the crowd – really grips. Until then, ensemble interplay's been missing. Perhaps it will come during the run.
Hitler/SS Man/Guard in rail sidings/Doctor in prison/2nd Soldier in Snow: Chris Hannon
Himmler/Von Bock/Customer/Soldier in rail sidings/Soldier in prison/1st Soldier in snow/Man in park: Paul Leeming
Goering/SS Lieutenant Bollinger/Shortsighted Man: David Crellin
Goebbels/SS Man Muller/SS Man/Soldier in rail sidings/Mr Voita: Ben Toye
Anna Kopecka/Woman in park: Olwen May
Schewyk: Robert Horwell
Young Prochazka/Bent Man: Graeme Hawley
Baloun: Sion Tudor Owen
Shopkeeper/Kati/Old Woman: Sophie Wright
Customer/Drunken SS Man/SS Man/Lieurtenant in rail sidings/Chaplain Bullinger/Man in park/Man on Crutches: Simeon Truby
Gestapo Agent Brettschneider/Dying Man: Clive Moore
Anna/Young Woman: Elianne Byrne
Director: Chris Honer
Designer: Kate Burnett
Lighting: Ken Coker
Sound: Paul Gregory
Additional Music/Music Director: Ewan Anderson
Movement/Dance: Niamh Dowling
Mask Maker: Alison Eyres
Fights: Renny Krupinski
2003-02-12 00:42:30