A German Life at The Bridge Theatre

A German Life written by Christopher Hampton is drawn from the life and testimony of Brunhilde Pomsel, secretary to Joseph Goebbels.  She lived to the grand old age of 106, dying on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27th 2017.  This play is based on a documentary film of the same name and, it has to be said is not the greatest piece of dramatic art, in that it is solely a static monologue.

But, and this is the big BUT, the monologue is delivered by one of our greatest actresses, Dame Maggie Smith, making the 95 minutes spent at The Bridge Theatre a very special theatrical experience.  One of our well-known theatrical critics suggests that Smith’s celebrity impedes the believability of the character portrayed, but surely he is forgetting something.  Bearing in mind that Pomsel herself is not necessarily a likeable character and that she spends the entire play sitting in a chair trying to recount her life and make us believe she had no idea of what was going on in Nazi Germany, a lesser-known actress would hardly persuade people to buy a ticket.  Whereas the wondrous Maggie Smith has sold out the entire production.  Another critic of renown makes the observation that at 84, Dame Maggie is too young to portray a woman of 106.  Mmmm, I’m not sure there are many centenarians treading the boards.

For the entire length of the play, Smith holds us enthralled.  Dressed in blue and constantly fingering the reading glasses she holds, a prop to actually remember her lines or a ploy her character is using to remember her life, I’m not sure, but remember she does.  She portrays Pomsel as a woman who was simply swept along by events, like everyone else and Smith’s skill is making us believe that maybe, just maybe, this elderly German lady really didn’t know that the Nazi party of which her boss was Reich Minister of Propaganda, was responsible for the annihilation of thousands of Jews.  Mind you, there is one chink in Pomsel’s nice old lady armor, when her recollections cause her to utter the words, “You won’t make me feel guilty” and she retorts “Nor do I buy that crap about the guilt of the German people”. Can this outpouring just be a way for her to clear her conscience?  Is the wrinkled little old lady in front of us an unrepentant liar?

Whilst Jonathan Kent has his actress sitting still for the entire play, the stage itself edges forward imperceptibly. In fact, it is such a slow process that, sitting at the side, I was unaware of the movement until I realised Maggie Smith’s always watchable face wasn’t as much in my line of vision as before.

There will be criticisms about our grand veteran’s performance, but they won’t come from me.  Her ability as an actor is as vibrant as ever and I defy anyone a third of her age to be as sprightly on leaving her chair and moving upstage as Dame Maggie.  What a joy it has been to witness this masterclass in holding an audience in the palm of one’s hand.