Review
Published: Wednesday 24 March, 2010 by Jackie Chappell, Bath Chronicle
Art versus politics, ignorance against culture, truth or lies, experience over ideology – we were faced with a consideration of them all in Ronald Harwood’s riveting play set in Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War.
The play centres on the interrogation of the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (played with gravitas by Dave Dunn) by US Army Intelligence officer Major Steve Arnold.
The Major wants to know why Furtwangler did not leave Germany in1933 when he had the chance and seems determined to prove that he was a Nazi collaborator.
Richard Matthews turns in a searing performance as the Major, driven by his ignorance of art and music as much as he appears to be influenced by the overwhelming ‘truth’ of what he has seen in the Nazi death camps.
What follows is an intellectually demanding and emotionally draining exploration of the two protagonists’ opposing views.
The conductor believes that music has mystical powers that speak to humanity, while the major says he is not a cultural man and needs to understand in ways he can explain to his buddies.
Throughout, we are swayed this way and that, as much by the superlative performances of the actors as by the arguments they portray. Nothing is black and white.
Who is right? Harwood – whose most recent success was the screenplay for the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – holds everyone’s actions up for scrutiny.
Next Stage director John Matthews’ production is a triumph.