Goodness...what a quandary
So we’re back from the Young Vic and Nachtland, with quite a lot to think about.
Modern-day Germany, a brother and sister (and their dysfunctional spouses) are house clearing after their father’s demise. The siblings don’t get on, until they do.
They find a hidden picture in the attic – it seems to be a pre-WW1 A Hitler original, one of the many he painted from postcard photos of Vienna.
They all don’t think much of it stylistically (‘Kitch’) but the brother wants to keep it, as a memento of his father (his Jewish wife doesn’t).
Then an appraiser confirms it is ‘right’. And of considerable value, perhaps €100,000, perhaps more. To the ‘right’ (far right?) buyer.
The arguments that you might imagine begin, and soon collapse into arguments about belonging and history, about what it means to be Jewish (and not just in a German context), guilt, and who should be guilty and to have sensibilities about the war, and about making money in this way. Issues of continuities (or not) with present day Palestine/ Israel are more than touched on (although this was written pre 07/10/23)
It’s originally a German play, and I suspect a German audience response would not quite mirror the complacency of the Young Vic’s theatre-goers.
It’s a 6 hander, with a little doubling, and overall well-acted, in particular the putative buyer Angus Wright (whose first dream-like appearance is, well, outstanding), and the art-dealer and assessor, Jane Horrocks, acting up a storm. It’s very much heightened reality.
Set on a scabby thrust stage with minimal props it is witty, challenging, at times hilarious, at times quite shocking. Worth seeing.