Review: A German Life (Adelaide Festival)
Words by Lia Devetzidis
A riveting exploration of the banality of evil
Theatre
Directed by Neil Armfield
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Length: 90 mins
5 / 5 stars
Showing at the Adelaide Festival Centre on select dates until March 14, A German Life is a fascinating and uncomfortable exploration of complicity and guilt, as well as a poignant reflection of modern society and the ghosts from the past that haunt it.
Written by Christopher Hampton and directed by Neil Armfield, the one-woman show is adapted from the testimony of Brunhilde Pomsel, a secretary to Joseph Goebbels during the Second World War. Robyn Nevin anchors the ninety-minute show with a riveting performance as this “resolutely apolitical” woman.
The power of Nevin’s performance lies in its subtlety. She is performing to an audience who have a pre-conceived understanding of her character’s place in history: Brunhilde Pomsel, to us, is a Nazi, and that means we will always harbour the suspicion she is a creature less than human.
Despite this, Nevin’s interpretation of her character’s earnest nature and deft delivery of unexpected comic quips quickly endear her to an adverse audience. Pomsel’s initial references to The Brownshirts, The Third Reich, and Adolf Hitler — names that carry an immeasurable historical and emotional resonance — are vehemently ambivalent; she does not exalt them, nor does she speak against them. Instead, she simply recognises their presence in the Berlin of her youth.
Like Nevin’s performance, Hampton’s script does not aim to shock the audience with gut punches or searing moments of intense emotional outpour. One can already find that countless books and films about the derangement that befell Europe. Instead, through Pomsel’s cavalier and unremorseful monologue, Hampton shows us a woman who is eloquent, honest, and perhaps not quite the monster we envisaged.
Before Nevin stepped onto the stage, I already had the impression this would be an intimate evening. The large stage of the Dunstan Playhouse shrinks to the size of a nursing home bedroom and suddenly, the audience is inside Pomsel’s chamber of memories. Historical footage projected onto the set and live cello accompaniment evoke a visceral response, but its used sparsely enough, usually when Pomsel reminisces on the atrocities committed during World War Two.
For these ninety minutes, we are in Pomsel’s world in all but flesh and blood, and we can’t help ask ourselves, was Pomsel just a secretary — a cog in the machine — or does her place in history hold more significance?
A German Life speaks a simple and important truth to a contemporary audience: ignorance is as dangerous as those who seek to exploit it. It deserves to be seen far and wide.
A German Life is showing at the Dunstan Playhouse in limited performances until March 14. Student tickets available from the Adelaide Festival website.
