Theatre / Reviews
Review: Farm Hall, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘Nuanced and rigorously detailed’
Six German physicists are holed up in a British country house – the Farm Hall of the title – during the latter part of World War II.
Detained by the British Government and managed by an off-stage fixer, the men while away their time with stilted amateur dramatics, chess and snarky in-fighting, before they join together in song round a rescued piano. And all the while they listen nightly for radio news about what’s happening in the wider world.
As the months go by, their relationships and allegiances shift. Some are unashamedly sympathetic to Hitler’s regime, others less so, and as their scientific achievements are brought into this academic competition the men all question their own and each other’s intentions.
is needed now More than ever
Julius D’Silva as Kurt Diebner
Eventually, news that the US has successfully created and deployed an atomic bomb brings a mix of incredulity, envy and guilt into their days together.
The paranoia felt by Archie Backhouse’s Bagge at the start of their stay – that their conversations might be being recorded – seems well founded now that we are party to them discussing how close they came to doing the same thing.
Forbes Masson as Otto Hahn and Alan Cox as Werner Heisenberg
Hahn, played by Forbes Masson, is the conscience of the piece as he begins to understand the devastating human cost of the part he played in nuclear experimentation.
Alan Cox’s Heisenberg shows us the well-documented ambiguity displayed by the Germans after the war ended – did they fail to reach the goal of atomic weaponry, or choose to delay it for the greater good?
David Yelland as Max Von Laue and Forbes Masson as Otto Hahn
Katherine Moar, in her writing debut, has given us a conversation play based on the actual historical events which also inform Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen.
The production comes to Bath following a stint at London’s Jermyn St Theatre. It’s a bold move to revisit this story, and sadly Moar does not quite pull off the balance of pace and tension required for such an intellectual script.
Archie Backhouse as Erich Bagge, Alan Cox as Werner Heisenberg
She presents the characters’ dilemmas and nuanced self-justification with rigorous detail, but she and director Stephen Unwin fall short of giving us a climactic moment of peril or conflict.
Ceci Calf’s set – whose peeling wallpaper, wall lights and hidden door displays a failing grandeur and a sense of history – is the seventh character in the production, and her costume design is spot on. The company is impressively cast and strong. With a good team behind her, I look forward to seeing what Moar does next.
Julius D’Silva, Archie Backhouse, Forbes Masson, Alan Cox, Daniel Boyd, David Yelland
For more information about upcoming productions at Theatre Royal Bath, visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk or follow @theatreroyalbath1805 on Insta.
All photos: Alex Brenner
Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
