Rolf Hochhuth’s comic strip history is a didactic danse macabre danced by Emperor Franz Joseph, King Edward VII, Winston Churchill, King Wilhelm II, Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, General Helmuth von Moltke and many others who were responsible for getting Europe into the slaughterhouse which was World War 1. The action is seen from a German perspective and takes place on the Isle of the Dead (No-Man’s-Land). The alliances aimed at preventing war were in the end the cause of 9 million dead.
Even Death is revolted. “I won’t,” he says, “give my name to mass murder by heavy industry…. The ones who deserve to die are those who sent them to fight and profited from the chaos and claimed they were in the right.” Hochhuth had wanted Death to appear naked or in a black cloak riding his centaur, Nessus. Director Christopher Loscher has Death as a dead young German soldier, a Brechtian figure, and a relation to the Emcee in Cabaret.
The text, 210 dense pages, is a mixture of dialogue, lengthy stage directions, commentary and extended quotes from ministers, diplomats and historians. Hochhuth’s massive epic would benefit from a full-scale spectacular production with band, newsreels, puppetry, dance and huge sets, such as only the National Theatre and the RSC could possibly afford.
Loscher’s production at the Finborough is, inevitably, more modest, more intimate, concentrating on the dialogue; but even here the text has been ruthless cut. In a large cast, most actors playing three roles, Dean Bray as Death, Tim Faulkner as Kaiser Wilhelm and Peter Cadden as von Moltke stand out.