TAKING SIDES. To 19 October.
Pitlochry.
TAKING SIDES
by Ronald Harwood.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 19 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 1,19 Sept, 6 Oct 2pm.
Audio-described: enquire when booking.
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 01796 484626.
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 August.
Art and Life in moral debate.
Pitlochry’s stage looks as if a bomb has hit it. The grey devastation of Adrian Rees’ set, through which scavengers carefully tread, is post-war Berlin. Even the room placed amidst this confusion, as if it had landed there by chance, is a Spartan relic of former grandeur.
It’s here a gum-chewing American insurance-seller interrogates a world-famous artist. For the American’s in the army now, a Major chosen for this job because he’s an arts ignoramus not in awe of great German orchestral conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler.
Steve Arnold's out to prove Furtwangler was a Nazi sympathiser. He’ll use any trick, offering threats and bribes to Helmuth Rode, a second-fiddler from the pre-war Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, to get dirt on big fish Furtwangler.
Ronald Harwood’s script plays fair with both sides in the clash of wills. There’s ultimate tragic realisation by the German, while Arnold’s unpleasantness serves a determined search for truth, understanding that Furtwangler’s help for many individual Jews registers very light compared with a wider validation of Nazism.
A fair amount of the shock at Arnold’s attack comes via the response of his Jewish-American subordinate (Grant O’Rourke, a calm litmus test for his crusading senior) or the moral equivocation of Rory Murray’s Rode, ashamed at accepting the American’s lowly bribes as he was of taking an orchestral seat he’d never have earned, owing to the banishment of Jews.
And supremely, Suzanne Donaldson’s Emmi, whose eventual one-line eruption in her doubly subordinate state (as German and secretary), undermining her father’s heroic anti-Hitler stance, is a telling moment of exasperation.
But the central conflict is unbalanced in Richard Baron’s otherwise scrupulous production. Alan Steele’s Arnold is a bag of tricks from old Hollywood in playing gun-chewing insistent interrogators. Nearly everything’s underlined and over-wrought, vocally and physically.
Martyn James gives Furtwangler an acknowledged Maestro’s assured arrogance, showing vulnerability first in his hatred of a younger rival, and in ultimate moral uncertainty as he re-examines his past. What should be a wearing away of artist by philistine, revealing complexities, becomes a lone stand of a dignified bear against the snapping of an over-excited dog.
Major Steve Arnold: Alan Steele.
Emmi Straube: Suzanne Donaldson.
Tamara Sachs: Susan Coyle.
Helmuth Rode: Rory Murray.
Lieutenant David Wills: Grant O’Rourke.
Wilhelm Furtwangler: Martyn James.
Director: Richard Baron.
Designer/Costume: Adrian Rees.
Lighting: Ace McCarron.
Sound: Ronnie McConnell.
Dialect/Accent coach: Lynn Bains.
2007-09-01 10:49:17