“With an ensemble of 40 actors and almost as many characters, it is a challenge keeping up and it’s impossible to give credits where they are due, as the standards are high“
Con Nats
4 /5 Stars of David
The National London Theatre opens with a new Tom Stoppard play which should attract those willing to go to the theatre from the safety of a cinema. And if you’re a fan, get along to see it as it is reportedly his last.
This time Stoppard has delved deep into his Jewish family’s history. As director Patrick Marber informs us, Stoppard didn’t realise just how Jewish he really was. And it seems there are degrees.
The First Act is set in 1899, Leopoldstadt an old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. The huge Merz family has gathered for Christmas and much debate and banter is around the degree of Jewishness and the obvious bigotry of the times. Many of the characters jibe at others, and some have been baptised in order to be more acceptable to their society and they tell tales of how they adjust. The dialogue is fast paced and sharp. When a young Nathan puts a Star of David on top of the Christmas tree, the grandmother exclaims “Poor boy, baptised and circumcised in the same week, what can you expect?” They debate assimilation, persecution and whether Hermann (Adrian Scarborough) will be accepted into the jockey club; his Jewish heritage is a hindrance.
This is the only Act where a semblance of a storyline appears as one central character, Gretel (Faye Castelow) cheats on Hermann with a soldier, who subsequently meet at a card game. This storyline returns in the third Act.
The Second Act jumps to a time when all the children have grown up, and have caught ‘the disease of socialism’ following the first World War. The family prepares for a brit m’lah for young Nathan as the portents of Nazism start to raise their ugly head.
The play does take a broad lens and focusses more on their environment and generational challenges than the personalities. (In the third act, their fates are read out like a dark shopping list.) Stoppard is clever in the way he uses wit, banter and story telling to dramatise his exposition. This way you get a stronger sense of how these characters actually felt about the times and it’s also damn good writing. I often ignored the incongruous accents as the words said enough.
As a side note, the play highlights how Jewish people were referred to as ‘political refugees’ and ‘social democrats’ to remove any religious racism from their bigotry. And artists were also banned from places such as theatres. This disproves the lie that the Nazis were socialists of any kind.
The next scene is the one we all dread. This family get together is interrupted by an English journalist, Chamberlain (Sam Hoare), trying to explain the imminent danger they are all in. They are all diffident before the Nazis visit on what was to be known as Christal Nachten – the night of the long knives. It is a brutal scene.
The final Act is post WWII and back at the house. Nathan (Sebastian Armesto) – Hermann and Gretel’s son – returned and bought the old house. English Leopold (Luke Thallon) who escaped to England with Chamberlain, was in Vienna and drops in and American Auntie Rhoda (Jenna Augen) is there too – the last remnants of the family. While Nathan provides the angst and bitterness, Leo starts the scene with English pomposity and transforms visibly. It’s a powerful scene and beautifully acted.
Do all the names confuse you? With an ensemble of 40 actors and almost as many characters, it is a challenge keeping up and it’s impossible to give credits where they are due, as the standards are high. Scarborough and Castelow deliver their characters nicely and Thallon’s final scene is a standout. Marber’s direction is simple and straightforward and respects the words. As the play progresses, the sets become more stark and as bare as their fates.
This is a deeply personal story and one we may have heard before. In fact, Ed Stoppard, the playwright’s son, is an integral part of the cast as the mathematician uncle. This time the story is fleshed out through humour and drama and storytelling. It’s also critical we continue to tell these stories and reveal their truth. In today’s times where conservatives are intent in rewriting an insurrection, a US President praised anti-Semites and conservatives still falsely claim Adolf was a socialist, we need playwrights with the heart and words like Stoppard to tell their truth. Propagandists might have Fox but the persecuted have the arts.
Con Nats, On The Screen
