American playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), of German-Jewish heritage, was blacklisted in 1952 when she refused to name names before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. “I Cannot,” she said, “and Will Not Cut My Conscience to Fit This Year’s Fashions.”
Hellman had made her reputation in the 1930’s with two plays, The Children’s Hour and The Little Foxes. Of all her plays, The Little Foxes, successully revived by the Donmar, is the one most likely to last.
Watch on the Rhine, last seen at the National Theatre over forty years ago in 1980, was a propaganda piece to get the Americans involved in World War II. It was written in 1940 and staged in 1941, well before the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
A programme essay informs that some of the Jewish elements of the characters, which Hellman had erased to make it more commercial for Broadway audiences, have been included in this production by Ellen McDoughall.
An estranged daughter (Caitlin Fitzgerald) returns home after twenty years with her German husband (Mark Waschke) and their three children. He is an important member of the Anti Fascist under¬ground movement.
Home is a rich, Liberal American family, dominated by an abrasively witty and selfish matriarch (Patricia Hodge), who has to be shocked out of her ignorance and insularity.
The play is a Broadway mixture of comedy and melodrama. The matriarch and a precocious little German boy (Bertie Caplin), who have all the witty lines, provide the comedy. A blackmailing Romanian (John Light) provides the melodrama.
There are too many characters and too much talk. Despite a good cast, the play does not really engage and no longer has the impact it once had as a wakeup call.
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