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By now, the subject of Diane Samuels' 1992 play Kindertransport is well known - at least by the over-forties. It tells the harrowing story of how 10,000
Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were brought to England between November 1938 (Kristallnacht, when nearly all Jewish shops and synagogues were
smashed,) and the outbreak of war on September 3rd, 1939. (Of the children left behind, about 1.5 million died.) Despite being specific to time and place, this play is
unfortunately extremely relevant to today's news of the Calais jungle and fleeing refugees worldwide.
Set in a Hamburg attic, with a dismembered piano and various boxes, patient mother Helga is teaching her reluctant young daughter Eva how to sew a button on a coat - so
she learns independence as well as sewing. It is only hours before Helga must put Eva,
alone, on a train to England. Eventually Eva persuades her mother to read her favourite
story book, The Ratcatcher, (which we know as The Pied Piper of Hamelin) and the realistic mood is broken by the shadowy figure of a hideous man, with slanting eyes,
long nails and a crooked back can be seen and heard behind the backcloth. Immediately
the eerie music by Colin Guthrie, sounding like plucked cembalo strings and dripping water, floats over the stage. His music and the ensemble grouped around the piano
punctuate the entire production brilliantly, adding atmosphere and fantasy to ghastly
reality. Scene after scene - the train journey, the Dutch border, the boat crossing - are
invoked in this way, until Eva arrives and is eventually found by her foster mother,
Mrs. Lil Miller, excellently played both middle aged and old, by Amanda Waggott (in her Tower debut.)
Scenes from Eva's childhood are interspersed with the contemporary world : German Eva becomes Englishwoman Evelyn, Mrs. Miller is Mum, and Evelyn's own daughter, Faith,
is now leaving home herself: not under duress, but because she's grown up. In another Tower debut, Poppy Lowles gives an understated, uncertain mood to Faith, which
contrasts excellently with her growing anger and frustration as she tries to fathom her mother.
Evelyn is still traumatised by childhood experience. Uptight, controlled and controlling, never speaking about the past, desperate to fit in with English society,
 rigid with tension and showing a steel interior, Ruth Sullivan gives a totally convincing performance. Getting rid of her Jewish heritage and baptised at eighteen, she declares
herself "cleansed." Receiving her British passport was the happiest day of her life. But
Faith's persistent questioning about letters in the attic, books, and some "little German girl" that stayed with grandmother Lil finally force a confrontational break
in her protective armour. Desperate to repress the past, Ruth's anguish and anger with the person she loves most moved me to tears ... such was the reality of her performance
throughout the play.
Similarly, however, Katrin Larissa Kasper (another newcomer to the Tower) was mercurial as Eva. A sweet innocence changed to German language terror when she
thought she was being abandoned on the station. In every scene, whether seeking work
permits for her parents, (only servants were permitted,) or despair when realising they
would never arrive because war had been declared, she slowly adapted and - in a foretaste of the Evelyn she became - wanted to sell her Star of David so that she could help to "pay her way".
It makes a change for men to be shortchanged in the theatre, but Kindertransport has one man playing 5 roles. What a gift for Paul Willcocks - which he avidly seized. Blessed with a loud, clear voice, he was not only the hidden Ratcatcher, but also the
German train official, (perfectly slowly menacing,) the bumbling English welcoming
organiser, the postman and the Guard; this latter perfectly capturing the change from natural concern for a lost child to officious authority. Helped into these roles by the imaginative use of grotesque masks, his presence dominated the stage, however briefly. I differ regarding the postman, however. Paul was frightening instead of funny. His perfect goose-step and Nazi "Heil Hitler" salute were more like the Nuremburg rallies than a friendly postie.
The impact of the final emotional scene between 17 year old Eva and her real mother Helga was heightened by the stage long distance between them. (Eva's father was
gassed in Auschwitz, but her mother survived many camps.) Helga, on her way to
her brother in New York, had a permit for Eva, naturally assuming she'd resume
"proper" ties. This desire had kept Helga alive. But Eva could not face change and only
wanted to remain ... to "bury" her mother Helga and her past. Accusingly, Helga said "My suffering is monumental. Yours is personal." It is a heart rending scene, and
was played to perfection.
Kindertransport is not an easy play to direct, jumping around in time and place. But this imaginative, empathetic production achieved deep and heartfelt emotion. All parents want to do the best for their children: all children grow up, change and leave. Director Angharad Ormond has done a wonderful job, along with imaginative lighting by Rob Irvine, and costume designer Kathleen Morrison, (full marks for Eva's pinafore and boots!) I quibble about Helga's flowing hair. Realising that some contrast is needed with
the last scene in which she is old, perhaps a thick roll tucked into a band would have been
more time appropriate ... and though Clare Joseph can't help being young and pretty,
lipstick was out of place. These, however, are just quibbles, and in no way affect an
altogether timely, emotionally eloquent, well acted and very well directed production.
Photography by Robert Piwko
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