THE WHITE CROW. To 11 October.

Colchester

THE WHITE CROW (EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM)
by Donald Freed

Mercury Studio Theatre To 11 October 2003
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 October

Sound and fury signifying less and less except for a fine, full-blooded performance.This is a stir-about interview between Hitler's Jew-killer Adolph Eichmann and fictional ex-Austrian Jew Miriam Baum, interviewing the Nazi after his capture. It has theatrical fizz but is ultimately hollow.

The location Jerusalem 1960' stares in graphic white from the two walls of Michael Vale's stark, colourless set. The audience forms the other two walls, putting script and actors under the microscope. They survive better than it. Donald Freed seems to have bitten off substantially more than he can digest in this piece and as the interview intensifies he relies increasingly on melodramatic devices.

A trained psychiatrist, Baum's personal involvement overcomes her professionalism. Photos of family members who failed to escape with her in 1939 and were killed come alongside Eichmann family photos - his beloved younger brother seen as a projection on a white-board scrawled with s Swastika linking Hitler, his chiefs and Eichmann the most telling image in the play.

Her aim is unbelievably optimistic in a crude variant on the device of a phone-call telling audiences the plot, Baum adds a personal message to Israel's Prime Minister on the interview recording, saying she wants Eichmann to live and realise his crimes' enormity. The play, at least, is honest enough not to bring this about.

The nearest to convincing conflict comes when Eichmann rounds on Miriam with the accusation her people are like his. Otherwise, the production colludes with the script by having Holly de Jong's interrogator express overt emotions, leaving an audience
bashed into submission. Restraint on stage produces genuine response among spectators. Here, there's only revulsion or sentimentality.

And, at least, Gerard Murphy. His Eichmann, frowning gorilla-like in myopia, dancing, prowling, threatening when specs restore his vision while holding up his belt-denied trousers - is a fearsome, manipulative creature. He doesn't speak words, he growls, savours, licks or chews them, to be spewed out for his own ends. It's a major performance in a minor play.

Perhaps someone can revive In Quest of Conscience, Robert David MacDonald's fine two-hander from Gitta Sereny's Into That Darkness, where similar moral obliquity is handled with decorum, and so retains its full flavour of slow-build shock for the audience.

Adolph Eichmann: Gerard Murphy
Baum: Holly de Jong
Guard: Nick Waters

Director/Designer: Michael Vale
Lighting: Emma Ralphs

2003-10-12 13:19:53