How does a caring, liberal man end up a Nazi? That's the question at the heart of CP Taylor's fascinating play Good.
A professor of literature at a German university, John Halder joins the National Socialists for the sake of his career. 'I'm not 100 per cent sure about Hitler,' he admits. Yet he ends up an SS officer, murdering the disabled and writing polemics against the Jews.
Polly Findlay's fluid, impressive production slightly ducks the issue by making Halder (Thomas Andrews) rather dislikeable in the first place but it's still a powerful piece.
All the play's action takes place inside Halder's head, so his attempts to convince his Jewish friend Maurice that this is just 'a temporary racialist aberration' make for especially painful moments: it's clear that a selfish Halder is trying mainly to persuade himself.
The play's excellent women are, however, the most vital characters. Halder's mother's dementia sets him on the road to espousing involuntary euthanasia, his fearful wife drives him into the arms of the Nazis and his naive lover, Anne, is an essential escape who doesn't believe in evil, although it's all around her.
Halder is haunted by music, bizarrely transmitted via pot plants, teapots and carrier bags. As we learn that it is played by an Auschwitz orchestra of the condemned, the central message is driven home powerfully. We must stand up for what we know is right before we're too deaf to hear.
Until Sat, Sound Theatre, 10 Wardour Street WC1, Tue to Sat 7.30pm, Sat mat 2.30pm, £10, £7.50 concs. Tel: 0870 890 0503. www.seetickets.com. Tube: Leicester Square
Good
