With Richard Langridge’s play THE ACT we are in the terrain of well written, compelling drama. The setting is Auschwitz in 1943, the territory that the play explores lies within the eternal question that an anonymous Holocaust survivor so succinctly posed, ‘Why is there good and bad in the world, why isn’t there just good and very good?!’.
THE ACT has an unnerving, eerie beginning. We enter the lives of Johann Frink (Daniel Mitchell) and Otto Hansen (Mark Kilmurry), a music hall comedy duo who hold a deep secret that, if revealed, is a certain death sentence. Johann is Jewish! The audience sees the duo enter a very bourgeois but ominous office, featuring heavy velvet drapes and stuffed animals mounted on the walls.
Johann and Otto are living in a kind of twilight zone, they have no idea where they are, nor for whom they are supposed to be performing. As they put down their luggage, they hear menacing noises coming from outside, the sound of dogs baying, trains racing past…
A valet comes in and provides them with dinner but is otherwise unhelpful. Then Captain Steiner comes in and it turns out that he is an old friend of Otto’s. He has sent for the popular comedy to perform for his entourage. The Captain reveals that he has written a play that he wants them to perform that night. His play is filled with Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitic references. Steiner’s play pushes the inimitable Double Act to the very edge.
Sandra Bates’s production takes us deeply into Langridge’s world. She wins strong performances from the cast. Daniel Mitchell plays the straight man to Mark Kilmurry’s fall guy. Michael Ross, featuring a shaven head, plays Captain Steiner’s valet.
Brian Meegan as Captain Steiner delivers the performance of the night. He gives an incisive portrayal of a man who has gone over to the dark side and is, in a twisted, ugly way, proud of it. He declares to Johann and Otto, ‘it is a relief not to care…to have crossed the line’. Yes Captain Steiner is a monster, not grotesque and unbelievable, but credible and frightening
An Australian premiere production, Richard Langridge’s THE ACT opened at the Ensemble theatre, 78 McDougall Street, Kirribilli, on Wednesday 8th February and plays until Saturday 3rd March, 2012.
© David Kary
17th February, 2012
An edited version of this review was published in the Australian Jewish News Sydney Volume 118 Number 20.
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- THE ACT, Richard Langridge, Ensemble theatre Kirribilli ,Sandra Bates, Mark Kilmurry, Daniel Mitchell, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary, Australian Jewish News.