Skittish artist Lebeau (Lawrence Boothman) tries desperately to convince himself that he is being detained for a routine check, and when this fails, he clutches at the hope that he could not be of use to them dead. The actor Monceau (PK Taylor) cannot fathom evil in a society that enjoys the theatre, whilst Michael Skellern’s waiter knows the Major to be a good man, as he serves him breakfast daily. The cruelty of the Nazi regime is not only depicted through Hoffman, James Boyd’s sadistic police captain and Henry Wyrley-Birch’s battle-wearied Major, but in the experiences of the assembled men, who have no common understanding of their enemy. Gethin Alderman, Edward Killingback, Jeremy Gagan and James Boyd. It is a suitably dispassionate backdrop for a piece which expertly grapples with the ineffability of evil. Indeed the whitewashed room, furnished simply by a long whitewashed bench, does a tremendous job of emphasising the play’s purgatorial qualities. The director, Phil Willmott, notes that this production of Incident at Vichy is the first to be presented without a “naturalistic set”, and consequently the audience is freed from “expectations of naturalism”. This is a marvellous production – a timely examination into the horrors of racial cleansing, and the inertia that allows it to go unchallenged. As the door slams shut, gruesomely clanking, fresh hell plays with their nerves. Intermittent appearances by the German Police, flanked by the perfunctory Professor Hoffman (Timothy Harker), means interrogation, and one by one these men disappear. This oft-quoted maxim is integral to Arthur Miller’s rarely performed masterpiece, set in a Vichy detention centre mid-way through the second World War.Ī number of men, many of whom are explicitly or implicitly Jewish, are brought there against their will, and begin to speculate about their fate. Irish philosopher Edmund Burke said that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. The standouts are Pettie, bringing a dynamic forcefulness to his turn as the shrink, who is also a French army captain, and Thomas, compelling as the elegant aesthete prince, who decries Nazism as “an ocean of vulgarity.Last Updated on 4th April 2017 Lawrence Boothman, Michael Skellern and Brendan O’Rourke. The large ensemble (one of the reasons the play is so infrequently staged) is mostly excellent, although their effectiveness is marred by some questionable casting: Carpinello, who starred in the short-lived Broadway musical version of Saturday Night Fever, as well as Rock of Ages, is not quite convincing as the troubled, alcoholic Major and Orsini ( The Nance) looks far too hale and hearty to be a starving artist. Director Michael Wilson’s staging is highly effective, with sound and projection effects heightening the tension at key moments. Still, the brief work has a gripping cumulative power that builds to a surprising conclusion, which is at once uplifting and tragic. Toward the end, when Leduc and the Major engage in a lengthy philosophical debate about acting in defiance of evil, it feels more like the playwright talking than his characters. But the play is also talky and didactic, its themes expressed too baldly. It deals with powerful themes of guilt and responsibility, tautly dramatized and well-defined. Incident at Vichy reflects both Miller’s strengths and weaknesses as a dramatist. Their unwillingness to do so, as well as the frustrations voiced by a sympathetic German Major (James Carpinello), is reflective of the inaction that the Nazis preyed upon in pursuing their horrific agenda. Leduc is the most assertive member of the group, convinced of the Germans’ evil intentions and desperately attempting to rally his fellow detainees to join him in an escape attempt. The businessman assures the others, “It’s just a document check, that’s all.” But the artist, who was recently stopped on the street by authorities to have his nose measured, is afraid the reasons are more sinister.Īnd he turns out to be right, because one of their detainers is an officious German professor (Brian Cross), who proudly announces that his specialty is “racial anthropology.” Those assembled are understandably anxious to know why they’ve been detained, espousing contrasting theories. Read More ‘A View From the Bridge’: Theater Review Joining them shortly afterward are two men who prove central to the proceedings: Leduc (Darren Pettie), a psychoanalyst, and Von Berg (Richard Thomas), an Austrian prince. D'Arcy Carden to Make Broadway Debut in 'The Thanksgiving Play'
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