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Taking Sides
- Tour.
This play was jointly premiered on 18 May 1995 at Minerva Theatre, Chichester
and Under the tile Za I Przeciw at Teatra im. Juliusza Slowackiego W.,
Krakowie.
Playwright - Ronald Harwood.
Director - Deborah Bruce.
Designer - Hayden Griffin.
Assistant Costume Designer - Chris Cahill.
Lighting Designer - Andy Phillips.
Assistant Lighting Designer - John Harris.
Soundscape - Matthew Scott.
Dialect Coach - Charmian Hoare.
Producers - Jenny King and Matthew Gale for The Touring Consortium.
Cast - here .
Edinburgh Venue - Kings Theatre
0131 529 6000.
Seen to review at King's Theatre Edinburgh 3 Febuary 2004.
Edinburgh Dates - 3 - 7 Feb at 7:30pm also Mats Wed & Sat at
2:30pm.
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Run Time - 2 hours 15mins including one interval.
Reviewer - Lorraine McCann.
Pearson's command of the stage is impressive.
In the years immediately following the defeat of Hitler's Germany, the
major Allies agreed that there should be a comprehensive process set up
to expunge supporters of the Nazi regime from society. Although many artists
were either ignored or let off with a cursory glance, the illustrious
conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, Julian Glover, finds himself
the focus of attention of a rootin'-tootin' American intent on dispensing
victor's justice.
On a rubble-strewn stage, with taped-up windows and swastika-emblazoned
doors crudely obliterated with cardboard, Ronald Harwood's study of hatred
leading to the disintegration of truth is played out. Major Steve Arnold,
Neil Pearson, has seen the camps, smelt the ovens, and against
a backdrop of haunted dreams he has become blinded by an inchoate rage.
And if he's heard about the conductor's saintly behaviour once, he's heard
it a million times. All he's interested in is that Furtwängler stayed
and practised his art when he could have left. So having reached his verdict,
all Arnold has to do is find the evidence. Not unlike a certain process
underway in a quiet corner of Cuba right now - except for the second bit,
of course.
Pearson brings out Arnold's 'gunhoo' gunslinger nature, and his
command of the stage is impressive.Although provoking nervous laughter
in the audience, Major Arnold's quips were for me often facile. The writing
is perhaps a little too didactic in places but there are flashes of something
genuinely frightening underneath. 'Where's your hate?' Arnold screams
at the Jewish aesthete Lieutenant David Wills, as if hatred were the only
sane response to evil.
Not the paciest or most involving of plays, Taking Sides will nevertheless
stay with you because, in it, Ronald Harwood reminds us that if truth
is the first casualty of war, it's also the last one, too.
© Lorraine McCann, 4 February 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: Emmi Straube - Ruth Grey, Major Steve
Arnold - Neil Pearson, Lieutenant David Willis - Tom Harper, Helmuth Rode
- John McEnery, Tamara Sachs - Tanya Ronder and Wilhelm Furtwängler.
2004 Tour Details of Touring Consortium's production
of Taking Sides .
Remaining Tour Details Tour started in Oct
3 - 7 Feb at 7:30pm also Mats Wed & Sat at 2:30pm. Edinburgh,
Kings Theatre 0131
529 6000.
9 - 14 Feb at Malvern Festival Theatre 01684 892277.
16 - 21 Feb Milton Keynes Theatre 01908 606090.
Tour Ends.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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