Herr Beckmann’s People: how did it move you?

Last week I was asked to review the world premier of Herr Beckmann’s People by Sally Stubbs, produced by Touchstone Theatre. It was the second week of its run and I felt it behooved PLANK for me to not just repeat what had already been made known in other reviews. Taking a look at some of the other reviews I mused about a ‘cut & paste’ job that would include the compliments and criticisms identified by each so I could meet my overnight deadline. Then I read our own interview with Ms Stubbs and realized such glibness would be at the very least, a disservice.

Here is a story born from reality, fashioned for the stage and developed by artists with decades of talent. Herr Beckmann’s People was begun in 2005, work-shopped at Groundswell in Toronto and showcased at the 2009 International Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai, picking up the 3rd Annual Canadian Peace Play Award from the University of Calgary along the way.

Taken from first person accounts of the Second World War and painted with a brush steeped in the expressionist style of Max Beckmann (the German Expressionist painter whose works were declared depraved by the Nazis), Stubbs peers behind the façade of the “bad German” to glimpse at humanity’s attempt to survive amidst a holocaust. While we are practiced at examining this time period from an anti-German stand point, this is a play aimed at the heart of a very big (and largely ignored) question: How can “good” people make such “bad” choices?

If I had left the theatre following the performance I would have easily written: “Trim that 2 hours down and amp the stakes up 1000%. Show me the reason I should believe the Epp family was torn apart by father’s choice, don’t just tell me that’s what happened!” Fortunately I didn’t…

There was a talk back session with actors that began to illuminate this piece immensely. As about 20 people crowded down to the front rows to pepper the cast with queries, I began to sense the play’s true potential. The transformations and impacts of this piece became evident as one after the other of the cast’s members opened their hearts to the audience to reveal how they had become a family through the exploration of the darkness they had been tasked to mine. They spoke of the immediacy of the setting (how many atrocities and genocides have occurred since the Second World War?), the overflow of emotions that leaked into their own personal lives and their growing love for each other as they sought a path through this historical and emotional quagmire.

Does this play succeed in its examination of the big question it asks? From an audience perspective: not really. It opens the door but fails to truly engage on a visceral level. From an actor’s point of view: absolutely. It forces the cast and creative team to delve deep into their own understanding of humanity. To move past the judgment of the victors to a place of compassion and hopefully cognizance of a people caught in a predicament; where the only seeming way of survival is to become the monster leading you.

For the audiences of Herr Beckmann’s People, it is a safe and polite perusal of a very important query, but for those who will perform this play again, it is a much greater experience. It is a mechanism to create empathy in those who will hopefully never have to make this choice and that, is a very powerful tool. Congratulations to all involved in bringing this new work to life.