Anna at The Dorfman

On the back of every seat for each performance of Anna, The Dorfman’s latest offering, are a pair of earphones; not an everyday theatre occurrence.  The play, created by playwright Ella Hickson and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham, is a thriller set in communist East Berlin in 1968.  With the everyday surveillance that went on at that time, East Berliners were naturally rather jumpy and, thanks to the earphones, through which is pumped ‘binaural sound’ (for this read audio 3D), the audience also experience that sense of unease.

Natalie Abrahami directs Phoebe Fox as Anna Weber and Paul Bazely as her husband, Hans.  On a set that divides the cast from the audience with a glass screen imitating the windows of the Weber’s apartment, we see Anna (clad in a bright red dress in sharp contrast to the dull coloured apartment) and Hans getting ready to host a party.  The shindig is to celebrate his recent promotion. Han’s fellow workers, plus Elena (Diana Quick), a neighbour from downstairs whose husband has been snatched away by the Stasi secret police, slowly arrive.  Elena’s husband was Han’s former boss and this is the main reason for her being shunned by all the party goers apart from Anna. The arrival of Christian Neumann (Max Bennett), the new “too smooth to move” head honcho causes much consternation to the hostess. Is he someone she knows from her past?  Anna’s nervousness, manifested by mutterings and the odd retching in rooms off stage, is all picked up to great effect through the aforementioned “cans”.  We’re able to listen in to every conversation, which makes even the apparently banal chit chat appear sinister.  And a little later on in the play when the lights all go out (praise for Jon Clark’s lighting design) and we hear every little sound, we get to really experience Anna’s vulnerability and panic.

It’s a short, one-hour long production, but the eventual plot (no spoiler alert here) is quite convoluted.  It is also strangely uninvolving, due to the fact that once it’s revealed we’re just privy to normal dialogue; our spying days are over!  I have to say that the plot is also full of rather improbable coincidences, but all that’s not to say that this claustrophobic tale isn’t engaging. It’s easy to pick holes in a play that is trying new ways to involve an audience and, by and large, Anna perfectly captures how it must feel to spend your whole life being suspicious about everyone and everything.

The cast is a strong one.  Phoebe Fox portrays the brittle Anna’s hysteria well, despite its arrival being rather hurried and Paul Bazeley is perfect as her completely baffled husband.       

The gold star of the production should definitely be awarded to the technical brilliance of the Ringham’s composition and sound design.  Ella Hickson is to be applauded for her ingenuity, but it’s a pity that Vicki Mortimer’s on point 60’s Set and Costume Design is a little let down by the too modern script.