Good (play)

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Good
Broadway playbill for Good.jpg
Original playbill for the 1982 Broadway production
Written by Cecil Philip Taylor
Date premiered9 September 1981
Place premiered Donmar Warehouse London, England
Original language English
SubjectThe path of Professor John Halder to the embrace of Nazi antisemitism
Genre Drama, Tragedy
Setting Frankfurt, 1932–41

Good is a play in two acts, written by Scottish playwright Cecil Philip Taylor. First published for Methuen Drama in 1982, it was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981 and was subsequently seen all over the world. [1] Good has been described as the definitive piece written about the Holocaust in the English-speaking theatre. [2] Set in pre-war Germany, it shows how John Halder, a liberal-minded professor whose best friend is the Jewish Maurice, could not only be seduced into joining the Nazis, but step-by-rationalised-step end up embracing the Final Solution, justifying to his conscience the terrible actions involved. [3]

Contents

Plot overview

John Halder is a Frankfurt literary professor and an example of the good man: he is apparently devoted to his wife and children and he does his best to look after his aged mother. He even tells his best friend, a Jewish psychiatrist, that the anti-Semitism of the National Socialists is "just a balloon they throw up in the air to distract the masses." But this is Germany in 1933, and men can change. Cecil P. Taylor, in tracing his hero's progress over eight years towards the upper echelons of the SS, plausibly explains the private flaws that lead to endorsement of public monstrosity. Beneath Halder's surface 'goodness' lies a chilling moral detachment: he can abandon his distracted wife for a devoted student, he has written a pro-euthanasia novel and shortly afterwards gives ideas on euthanatizing people without the consent of anyone involved (the people aren’t supposed to know they’re dying and their families are never even told about it), he hears in his head a continuous musical score that helps blot out daily reality. Taylor's point is that Nazism preyed on individual character flaws and on a missing moral dimension in otherwise educated and intelligent people. At first Halder believes he can help 'push the Nazis towards humanity'. Slowly he succumbs to vanity, careerism and the desire for an easy life. Above all, he remains curiously detached from reality. [4] At the end Halder not only becomes a member of the Nazi party but also plays a direct role in SS book burnings, in euthanasia experiments, in the night of the Broken Glass, and, finally, in Adolf Eichmann's genocide at Auschwitz, where Maurice, the sole source of a Jewish perspective in the play and original force of "good" in Halder, ends up being deported.

Themes

Good is a play about the causes rather than the consequences of Nazism, about morality and seduction. It explores how a "good" man gets caught up in the intricate web of personal and social reasons why the average person might be seduced in to what we see as abhorrent. The author thus rejects the view that the Nazi atrocities are explained as a result of the simple conspiracy of criminals and psychopaths. Furthermore, the lessons of Nazism and the play are not just about the revulsion resulting from six million dead but are also a warning about popular movements that lead to holocausts. Not judgmental of its protagonist, Good invites us to question just what a "good" man is and does and where the bounds of responsibility lie. [3]

Historical moments referred to in the play are included:

Productions

Good was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and premiered on 9 September 1981 at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, London. The play was directed by Howard Davies with Alan Howard in the role of Halder and Joe Melia as Maurice. Good opened on Broadway on 13 October 1982, with Gary Waldhorn taking over the role of Maurice. It was subsequently seen all over the world. It was produced by the Brunton Theatre Company in Musselburgh, under the direction of Charles Nowosielski, in 1989. [6]

In 1998, it secured joint 85th place in the Royal National Theatre's Survey of the "Most Significant Plays of the 20th Century". [7] A year later, Michael Grandage directed in its original theatre a new successful play in two acts, with Charles Dance playing John Halder, Ian Gelder as Maurice, and Faith Brook as Halder's mother. [8] The London Evening Standard described the event "one of the most powerful, politically pointed nights at the theatre." [4]

The play has been performed by many regional theatre companies, including the Havant Arts Centre in 1986, [9] the North Wall Arts Centre in 2008, [10] the Hilberry Theater in 2010, [11] the Royal Exchange Theatre, [12] Everyman Theatre, Cardiff in 2011, [13] and the Burning Coal Theatre Company in 2013. [14]

A 12-week production, starring David Tennant, began at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in October 2022. The play was originally scheduled to play for 10 weeks at the Playhouse Theatre with previews beginning 6 October 2020. However, the production was rescheduled twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [15] [16] The play was filmed and broadcast in movie theaters beginning in April 2023. [17]

Reception

Reviewing the Broadway production, Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that "Good is an undeniably provocative work, and Mr. Taylor, who died last year at the age of 53, has written it with an intelligent, light touch in a most imaginative form. But for all the author's efforts to break through our received ideas about the origins of Nazism and to avoid black and white moral imperatives, his play doesn't add anything to the generalities of the past. ... The high point of Mr. Davies's staging, as well as of the script and of Mr. Howard's performance, comes in the final moments, when Halder finally arrives in Auschwitz and confronts a band that, for once, he cannot tune out. It's the play's only truly devastating passage because, at last, we and Halder are face-to-face with the horror of the Holocaust. But, even then, we're still left feeling impotent before history, for we're still wondering just how Halder ended up there. Like too many Nazi criminals before him, the protagonist of Good has eluded his erstwhile prosecutors and stolen into the night, the dark secrets of his soul intact." [18]

Writing for The Boston Phoenix , Sylviane Gold said that "The trouble with the surprises in Taylor's play is that they never add up. First we are asked to believe that an otherwise healthy individual hears things. That gave me problems right off the bat — where | grew up, we were taught that if you heard things or saw things that weren't there, you were yourself not all there. ... I've ranked [Howard] with the two or three best actors I've seen. So this performance is doubly baffling, doubly disappointing to me. Howard is so busy giving Halder everything he’s got that the character never becomes human; he’s just a collection of mannerisms. ... If Good can be said to have any redeeming virtues, they must lie in the clever way Taylor has the Nazis use his hero. Instead of forcing the humanistic academic to become part of the Nazi killing machine, the high command merely requires him to justify it. He turns out dissertations rather than corpses — a subtlety that seems to be lost on many theatergoers." [19]

Film adaptation

A film adaptation of the play, featuring Viggo Mortensen as John Halder and directed by Vicente Amorim, was released in December 2008.

Notes

  1. ↑ The play is set in Frankfurt, where there was also a book burning. A memorial to this event can be found in the city centre at the Römerberg. [5]

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References

  1. ↑ "Cecil P Taylor Complete Guide". Doolee. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Orme, Steve. "Theatre review: And a Nightingale Sang at New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme (2010)". British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Good written by C P Taylor". Bench Theatre. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Good, Archive Productions". Albemarle of London. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "Plaque Book Burning - Frankfurt am Main - TracesOfWar.com". en.tracesofwar.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  6. ↑ review of Good by Mark Fisher, The List, Issue 108, 10 - 23 November 1989, p. 50
  7. ↑ "100 best plays of the Century". National Theatre. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Michael Grandage's Good". Variety. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Bench Theatre plays". Bench Theatre. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  10. ↑ "The North Wall Archive listings". UKTW. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "Good is opening on Feb 26th". Hilberry WordPress. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "Good - Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester". The Public Reviews. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  13. ↑ "Everyman Theatre Cardiff present 'Good' by CP Taylor". Theatre Wales. 31 October 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  14. ↑ "Good, Burning Coal Theatre Company at the Murphey School". Indy Week. 6 February 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  15. ↑ "Good starring David Tennant announces new West End venue and 2021 dates | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "Good starring David Tennant to run in the West End this autumn | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  17. ↑ Hibbs, James (16 November 2022). "David Tennant's play Good to be broadcast to cinemas in UK and worldwide". Radio Times. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  18. ↑ "Good (NYTimes review)". The New York Times. 14 October 1982. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  19. ↑ Gold, Sylviane (30 November 1982). "One stings, the other doesn't: Good is plenty, but Plenty is good". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
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