GOOD is C.P. Taylor’s very timely political tale of 1930s Nazi Terrorism. Technically a more innovative play, with a unique and thought provoking powerful political narrative. John Halder (David Tennant) is a good, intelligent German professor, but we soon discover that YES there is a hole where his conscience should be, and gradually slides along with others by becoming monsters. This ordinary man who takes a one-way detour, towards joining the elite of the Nazi regime.
GOOD commences in 1933 with John Halder speaking out to Maurice against the rise of Nazism. GOOD in this instance refers to a GOOD man, the protagonist John Halder, who is a liberal conservative minded, literary professor working in Frankfurt, Germany, specialising in the German poet, playwright, and novelist Johan Wolfgang Goethe. John Halder makes RATIONAL decisions for the GOOD of his aged mother, wife and children. Incrementally resulting in the death of his best and only Jewish friend Maurice (Elliot Levey). GOOD discusses anti-semitism, and the question of euthanasia in 1930s Germany.
Yet with the encouragement of his wife Helen (Sharon Small), to safeguard his career and continue to support his family, John Halder joins the Nazi party. Given his previous World War One military service from 1916-1918 and his knowledge of Goethe, he is appointed to be an officer in the “Elite SS”. John Halder reflects on how excited and proud he was to enlist in 1916, and wear his uniform “My friend and I walked all over Berlin, finding officers to salute.”
The tempo of the play is driven by the pace of the musical repertoire of German Music, that John Halder hears in his head, that we also hear. German marching bands, Schubert, Wagner, et al, that allows him to remove himself from his reality.
The GOOD man, abandons his friend Maurice, refusing Maurice when assistance was requested. John Halder also leaves his wife, for his student Anna, as his wife is “slovenly and disorganized and impacting on his career, and he can not bring colleagues home”.
The three cast members remain on stage for the entire two hour duration of the two act play. Two magnificent actors (Levey and Small) give their delicious performances as multiple characters during the play, and both weave their way in and out of the narrative, together with changes in the background soundscape, plus sound effects. With no costume changes, Levey and Small together with only the sudden change of the colour palate lighting to/from white/ grey/ pink/ yellow/ red/ happening at the same time as the change of their accent, together with the change of volume/ tone of their voice. They repeatedly switch characters at a moment’s notice, and at some point, probably confusing when/if you fail to notice the sudden colour changes. In addition, by breaking the fourth wall, Halder’s internal monologue is expressed directly to the audience, and often overlaps with actual dialogue, adding another clever layer for the audience to decipher.
GOOD invites us to question just what a GOOD man is and does, and where are the actual bounds of responsibility. Examining the causes, rather than the result of the Holocast, and how ordinary individuals, who were not necessarily evil, coalesced and contributed.
“I am not being profound, Maurice . . . I am just coming to grips with reality . . . What has happened, is we have confused fantasy concepts like good, bad, right, wrong, human, inhuman . . . as objective, immutable laws of the universe, Jews are bad, Germans are good . . . Like a stone falls to the ground . . . It is a moral act to get rid of the Jews . . . GOOD, whatever that means . . . ” Highly Recommended.
STARRING – David Tennant, Elliot Levey, Sharon Small
DIRECTED BY Dominic Cooke
PLAYRWRIGHT – C.P. Taylor
INFO – https://sharmillfilms.com.au/national-theatre-live/good/
NTLIVE – https://sharmillfilms.com.au/title-type/national-theatre-live/
FAQ – https://good.ntlive.com/
PRODUCTION – https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/whats-on/national-theatre-live-good/
VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQAWUFiYX-4&
Filmed live and streamed from the stage of THE HAROLD PINTER THEATRE in London .
Presented by Fictionhouse and Playful Productions
Production Photography – Johan Persson
NT live: GOOD will be screening in selected cinemas around Australia from 23rd June 2023. Running Time of 125 minutes, including the 20 minute interval – an interval that from the 12th minute then provides a unique behind the scenes video about the production, lasting for around eight minutes.
