Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga’s political play ‘Way To Heaven’ takes on a far-reaching theme with his 2004 play, ‘Way To Heaven’. In the program notes Mayorga writes, ‘I wanted to explore an ongoing subject in our lives…the invisibility of horror in our lives- only the strongest of individuals are able to look directly at the truth and the manipulation of victims that is used to mask the executioners’.

In ‘Way To Heaven’ Mayorga takes a real life incident as the starting point to examine his theme. In 1944 a delegation from the International Red Cross visited the Theresianstadt concentration camp to investigate rumours that horrors were taking place inside the camps. Aware of the repercussions of such a visit, Nazi camp officials went about normalizing and ‘airbrushing’ the camp for their visit. The main way they did this was to get the camp inmates to put on an act that everything was fine within the camp walls. The inmates performed too well, the delegation went away, content that there was no issue- in essence, they were unwilling to search deeper for the truth or to ignore the manipulation.

Mayorga’s weighty drama is currently being performed at Kings Cross’s Stables theatre in a joint Griffin Independent and Ride On Theatre production directed by Tanya Goldberg.

I came out from the performance with mixed feelings. The play felt too drawn out and cerebral, and a bit lop-sided in its presentation of theatrical processes when the subject matter seems to call for a more visceral approach. Tanya Goldberg’s production felt too intense and Verity Hampson lighting design came across abrasively.

The cast performed strongly and with conviction. The main roles were performed well with Nicholas Hope great as the anguished Red Cross official, as was Nathan Lovejoy as the manipulative Nazi Commandant, and Terry Serio as the Nazi selected representative for the inmates. The cast included a number of young actors performing the roles of children caught up in the horrors of camp life and they all performed well.

I suspect that, such is the nature of this play, that it will deeply polarise audiences. Lots of healthy, stimulating debate should follow!

Tanya Goldberg’s production of Juan Mayorga’s ‘Way To Heaven’ is playing the Stables theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross until the 8th May.

Wednesday 14th April, 2010.