The White Factory by Dmitri Glukhovsky. Marylebone Theatre, 35 Park Road, London NW1 to 4 November 2023.

4****: William Russell.

There were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. This powerful and very moving play directed by Maxim Didenko is based on events in the ghetto at Lodz where Chaim Rumkowski, the head of a local orphanage, was placed in charge by the local Nazis – it included a pillow factory – and tried to make it a success to protect the inmates, but slowly he was corrupted by events until in 1942 with demands to send more and more of the inhabitants to the death camps he went along with one to send every child under ten. Adrian Schiller gives a memorable performance. He is not, however, the central figure – they are his son in law, a young lawyer called Yosef Kaufman, played by Mark Quartley, a fictional character who goes along with what is happening in the camp until he ends rounding up the children in a bid to save his own two sons, while his wife Rivka played by Pearl Chanda, appalled by what is happening sees death as the only way out They too give performances to remember. It has been handsomely staged – lavishly for what is a fringe theatre – and holds the attention throughout as pragmatism proves the wrong approach. Kaufman and the commandant are confronted – the latter’s trial bookends the piece – and both plead the same thing - they were just following orders. It is not a comfortable evening as it does confront one with just what one would have done in the circumstances – and who knows the answer ? There is some hugely effective use of a hand held camera so that you see the players taken out of the context of the scene – it makes what you are watching now something happening in the past, a world of black and white film.

Cast

Paul-Hector Antoine

Lucas Allermann

Olivia Bernstorne

Pearl Chanda

Leo Franky

James Garnon

Lewis Hart

Mark Quartley

Adrian Schiller

Matthew Spencer

Aron Yacobi

Rachel Barry

Cameron McColm.

Creatives

Director – Maxim Didenko.

Designer – Galya Solodovnikova.

Composer – Louis Lebee.

Lighting Designer – Alex Musgrove.

Sound Designer – Julian Starr.

Associate Set & Costume Designer – Isabella Van Braeckel.

Video Designer – Oleg Mikhailov.