The traitor in Jonathan Lynn’s play is the 84-year-old Marshal Philippe Pétail, the great French commander and an acclaimed national hero for his defence of Verdun in 1914. He surrendered to the Germans in World War 2 and set up a puppet government in Vichy. When the war ended he was arrested and charged with treason and with collaborating with the enemy. Pétain argued the war was already lost in 1940 and that by signing the armistice he saved Paris from destruction and saved millions of French lives.
The play is also the story of the father/son relationship Pétain had with his ambitious, proud, arrogant and unpopular protégé, Charles de Gaulle. Both did their duty as they saw fit and both had the courage to stand alone. Great soldiers disobey orders. Pétain backed the wrong side and was reviled. Should he still be condemned or exonerated? The script feels like a docudrama written for television which has been made theatrical by a nice line in comic irony. Lynn directs and the production, excellently acted by Tom Conti and Laurence Fox, well deserves a West End transfer.