Haines Logo Text
Now Playing
August 13, 2021:

The Reichstag is Burning reviewed by Rob Stevens


Joanne Hartstone (all photos by Frank Lynch)

Australian playwright/performer Joanne Hartstone was not the first person to compare the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in 1930s Germany to what was happening in the United States with Donald Trump and the Republican Party the past few years. She just did it with style and inventiveness with her The Reichstag is Burning, an award winner at the Adelaide Fringe earlier this year and now streaming as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The show is billed as “a postmodern cabaret for a world on fire, inspired by the Weimar Kabarett tradition”. You can think of her chanteuse character, Iris London, as a combination of the Emcee and Sally Bowles from Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret as filtered through the iconic imagery of Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel. It’s a lot to pull off but Hartstone does it effortlessly and masterfully.

The show begins on January 4, 1933 as Hitler begins his rise to power. At first the denizens of the decadent nightlife of Berlin are still able to poke fun at Hitler and his followers. Using photos and supertitles, the show follows the power-grabbing Nazis as the voices of their opposition are silenced one by one, starting with the communists and intellectuals. Minorities are targeted, books are burned, women are basically confined to the home and turned into baby factories, lies and fake news proliferate and The Aryan Race/White Power becomes dominate. Cabarets and theatres are closed although some still operate underground such as Die Katacombes where London still performs her musical protests. Her numbers become darker and more frightening as the outside world becomes a darker, more frightening place.

Hartstone performs over a dozen songs in the 70-minute show, from Irving Berlin to the Rolling Stones. Some songs have new lyrics, like the love theme from The Godfather, to better tell her tale. Tom Kitney did a stellar job of directing, giving the show a feeling of classic Brecht/Weill. Kitney also designed the great, moody lighting and sound design. Michael Morley provides the voiceover. But the show depends on the talents of Hartstone who holds your attention as she morphs from jolly satirist to fearful dissident. The show ends with a hopeful quote from The Diary of Anne Frank. Things did turn out better in Germany. Unfortunately, the result in the U.S.A. is still in doubt. But shows like this, created and performed by artists such as those involved here, give me hope.

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/7147

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved