The Timekeepers Review

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Rating (out of 5)
4
Show info
Company
New End Theatre and Sweet Venue
Production
Dan Clancy (writer), Lee Gilat (director), Daniel Salomen (score), Uri Ofir (set/lighting design), Inge Barba (costume design).
Performers
Roy Horovitz (Hans), Efron Etkin (Benjamin), Omer Etzion (kapo)
Running time
65mins

In Sachsenhausen concentration camp an elderly Jewish Berlin watchmaker (Benjamin) and a flamboyant German homosexual (Hans) are thrown together.

They are watched over and taunted by the brutal kapo (a criminal prisoner with privileges), who brings them boxes of watches to repair.

The taciturn Benjamin is absorbed in the minutia of his task and initially has no time for the somewhat needy Hans - but then his need is great - he has only been saved from hard labour by saying that he can mend watches and requires to learn, fast. This reliance turns to inter-dependency as Hans reveals that he can find information on the whereabouts of Benjamin's beloved family.

A shared love of opera strengthens a friendship still challenged by mistrust and prejudice, allowing them to share reminiscences of the world outside. But there is a question hanging over both the broken watches and the inmates - "How much time is left?"

There are fine performances all round and the production is beautifully structured; the score and well-paced gaps in the dialogue allowing the relationships and story to develop at a pace which draws the audience members in, filling them with both hope, horror and remarkably, humour.

A moving and intense piece of theatre that looks beyond the relationship between the main characters to question isolation and understanding in communities.

Times: 6-16 and 18-30 August, 7.00pm.