Worth: $19.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
David Tennant, Sharon Small, Elliot Levey
Intro:
… complex well-written drama …
If you ask, ‘what does it mean to be a good person?’, you are in the realm of general moral philosophy. If you ask, ‘what does it mean to be a good German?’, you are, by implication, suddenly tied to the specifics of world history. Given that this most civilised of countries produced the most uncivilised behaviour of the twentieth century, this is a question that never loses its fascination. Who were Hitler’s willing henchmen and exactly how did they fall into it?
This forms the backdrop to CP Taylor’s great play Good, which is undergoing a stunning revival on the London Stage. Thanks to the wonders of the NT Live programme, you can catch a filming of this play at the cinema (admittedly at selected screenings).
Taylor was a Scottish working class man who wrote compulsively. Working on a little manual typewriter in his garden shed, he churned out nearly 60 works. Sadly, he died shortly before this particular play opened to wild acclaim in the early 1980s. Given the quality of the writing, it is assured of its place in the modern theatre canon.
One of the hallmarks of Taylor’s work is that he tries to get at the point and counterpoint that is inherent in most conversations and debates. He does this here by writing at multiple registers in the same scene, including a continual strategic breaking of the fourth wall, where actors can have a conspiratorial aside to the audience. When the characters say things which were believed at the time, but which we now regard as flawed or terrible (such as the nazi assumptions about racial purity), the playwright can show how they (and we) always operate at different levels of meaning within the same speech.
The National Theatre production, directed by Dominic Cooke also boasts a wonderful cast juggling multiple roles in a tour de force three-hander. It is headed by David Tennant, who shows great range and subtlety. This is his return to the London stage, and he is obviously relishing such a well-written part. He is ably supported by Sharon Small as his wife Helen and National Theatre stalwart Elliot Levey as his best friend Maurice.
Tennant plays John Halder, a suave and civilised (there’s that word again) academic on the rise. In some ways, his trajectory has parallels with the real life German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who started out just wanting to write, but became, by stages, a virtual supporter rather than merely a shamefully mute witness. (Like Halder here, many of Heidegger’s friends were Jewish). Halder is a slightly misanthropic intellectual. He doesn’t much like people, which makes his one true friendship with Maurice all the more important. Initially, Maurice’s Judaism doesn’t seem to be of any consequence. After all, weren’t half the intellectuals and artists of the time Jewish? However, the play uses Halder’s friendship with the increasingly desperate Maurice as a device to measure both the progress of the madness and the weakening of a good man’s resolve. There is so much more to explore here – from the innovative staging and blocking to the rich dialogue exchanges – but one can only fit in so much.
If you like complex well-written drama, you should make a real effort to catch this one.
