Hardly a month goes by without there being yet another book, play, film, television programme about the Holocaust.
GOOD, C. P. Taylor’s psychological drama, which the RSC premiered in 1981 at the Donmar Warehouse, has always been praised because of its horrific subject matter rather than for its dramatic qualities.
Taylor traces the German nation’s rapid decline from civilisation to barbarity. 11 million people were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, including 960,000 Jews.
David Tennant plays Halder, a good German, an academic, who joins the National Socialist Party, initially, in order to safeguard his career. He ends up as a SS officer actively participating in the extermination.
Halder’s downward path begins in 1939 when Hitler becomes Chancellor. Inspired by his blind and senile mother, he writes a novel advocating euthanasia on humane grounds. The book comes to the attention of Goebbels and Hitler, who are looking for a respectable front for the Final Solution.
At first, Halder tries to rationalise what is happening in Germany, arguing that ethnic cleansing is but “a temporary racial aberration.” As time goes on, he begins to think that maybe it is the Jews’ own fault.
Dominic Cooke’s production is acted out in a grey prison-like cell. There were 10 actors in the original RSC production. Now there are only three, and two of them are playing a number of roles, which, with the overlapping dialogue, does not make the play easy for the audience to follow.
Elliot Levey plays Halder’s best friend, a Jewish doctor, who hates Jews, loves Germany, and doesn’t want to leave. Levey also plays a Nazi. Sharon Small plays Halder’s mother, wife and lover. Music plays an important and effective part in the production and is particularly haunting in the final moments.
David Tennant is a stalwart and hugely popular actor. It is his presence in the play which ensures the success of Good at the box office.
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