Post by joem on Apr 10, 2023 11:48:53 GMT
Play by Francis Beckett which tells the story of Rose Cohen, a British Jewish Communist and journalist, but also Harry Pollitt leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain for most of the period between 1929 and his death in 1960 and how the former fell foul of Stalin's purges against all and sundry, despite the latter's "friendship" with the Soviet megalomaniac.
The playwright concentrates on the human aspects of the story, which is just as well as the politics of it is depressingly sordid - with the one brief exception of the time between the Nazi-Soviet pact of summer 1939 and the German attack on the USSR in 1941 where he argued that Hitler needed to be stopped, Pollitt was a faithful Stalin lickspittle supporting the killing of millions during the largely self-induced famine of the 30s and the murderous purges, the destruction of democracy in eastern Europe and the killings in Hungary in 1956. Perhaps it's only by seeing him as a frustrated lover that he can be made into a more sympathetic character.
The short informative scenes (helped by projections telling us when and where the action is happening) give it a good pace, sort of cinematic, but also mean that character development is sketchy. Still, a nearly full house - mostly of a certain age - expressed its approval of the piece and of the performers. Jonathan Hansler's turn as as a superficially bluff and avuncular Uncle Joe Stalin - always pathologically suspicious and one hair's breadth away from violence, was particularly effective.
Perhaps this is also a good place in which to mention that John and Katie Plews, who have been running the theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse with much flair and TLC since 1997, are retiring and the theatre will in future be ran by new artistic directors who already have links with the venue. Good luck to them but above all a thank you for a job well done to John and Katie.
The playwright concentrates on the human aspects of the story, which is just as well as the politics of it is depressingly sordid - with the one brief exception of the time between the Nazi-Soviet pact of summer 1939 and the German attack on the USSR in 1941 where he argued that Hitler needed to be stopped, Pollitt was a faithful Stalin lickspittle supporting the killing of millions during the largely self-induced famine of the 30s and the murderous purges, the destruction of democracy in eastern Europe and the killings in Hungary in 1956. Perhaps it's only by seeing him as a frustrated lover that he can be made into a more sympathetic character.
The short informative scenes (helped by projections telling us when and where the action is happening) give it a good pace, sort of cinematic, but also mean that character development is sketchy. Still, a nearly full house - mostly of a certain age - expressed its approval of the piece and of the performers. Jonathan Hansler's turn as as a superficially bluff and avuncular Uncle Joe Stalin - always pathologically suspicious and one hair's breadth away from violence, was particularly effective.
Perhaps this is also a good place in which to mention that John and Katie Plews, who have been running the theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse with much flair and TLC since 1997, are retiring and the theatre will in future be ran by new artistic directors who already have links with the venue. Good luck to them but above all a thank you for a job well done to John and Katie.