Captivating reflections of an ageing, bitter Nazi
Hess Intense, powerful drama
TRAPPED in time. In dead history.’ That’s how Adolf Hitler’s Deputy, Rudolf Hess, self-pityingly describes his incarceration in Spandau Prison under the watch of Allied guards, in this revival of William Burrell’s powerful, award-winning play, Hess.
Hess was captured in 1941, after making a solo flight to Scotland to try to negotiate peace with Britain.
Tried in Nuremberg, he was sentenced to life in Spandau, where he spent 46 years, half of that time as its only prisoner, before committing suicide aged 93.
Shuffling on to the stage in a mackintosh and pyjamas having just come from the prison hospital, Hess, (played by Derek Crawford Munn) cuts a sickly, withered figure.
But once he gets his second wind, he seizes his moment to directly address the audience, (and by proxy the whole of Western Christian Democracy), to offer up a potted hagiography of his life, times, and motives, in which he tries to paint himself, not as a monster, but as a patriotic idealist, unjustly crucified by the Allies for having the courage of his convictions.
In trying to rationalise his past, the ageing Nazi, portrayed here by Munn with captivating nuance and subtlety, throws up some unsettling questions about the nature of revenge and responsibility in times of war.
‘Don’t put revenge in a pretty dress and call it justice,’ he spits, referring to the Germans only being tried by the Allies, and the cruelty of the slow death sentence passed on him.
However, any sympathy the audience may be tempted to feel is undercut by Hess’s blind, bigoted WITH the Fringe bursting with monologues and small scale experimental works, trying to find a decent, solid ensemble production is getting tougher. So it’s pleasing to find Incognito Theatre ticking all the boxes here, as a five-strong cast take on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic tale about German soldiers in the Great War. 2016 being the centenary of the Somme just adds to the poignancy.
Pleasance, until Aug 29 fanaticism. Yes, he was eager to make peace with Britain, he says, (but only if Churchill was removed, and the Jews and Russians allowed to be crushed). His admiration for Hitler remains unswerving.
And the West’s fascination with the Third Reich is put down to secretly admiring the fact that ‘we dared to dream,’ rather than disbelief at the depravity of the Nazis.
One key scene sees Hess recoiling in horror at being shown footage of the concentration camps. Yet it was Hess that drafted the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws of 1935. An intense, powerful drama, bolstered by Munn’s masterly performance.
Gilded Balloon, until Aug 29