Nothing Like a Dame
Last year they showed the documentary “Nothing Like a Dame” on telly with theatrical Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith all filmed chatting together in Dame Joan’s garden and it was a complete delight. The only thing wrong with it from my point of view was that I realised I had never seen Dame Maggie on stage. I am lucky enough to have seen all the other three at one time or another and they have all been very memorable but for some reason, mostly lack of paying attention, I’d never managed to see Dame Maggie and I was kicking myself as I knew she hadn’t appeared on stage for years so I thought my chance had gone. Then a couple of months ago an email from the Bridge Theatre dropped into my inbox announcing a production of A German Life starring…Dame Maggie Smith. I was delighted until I realised the tickets went on sale when we were in Amsterdam. Curses! I was sure, rightly, that the production would sell out very quickly but I realised that, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I could book the tickets from Amsterdam, which I duly did. It turned out to be well worth the effort as we went last night and it was an amazing theatrical experience.
A German Life, written by Christopher Hampton and based on an Austrian documentary about a woman called Brunhilde Pomsel is described by the Bridge Theatre website, better than I can, like this “Brunhilde Pomsel’s life spanned the twentieth century. She struggled to make ends meet as a secretary in Berlin during the 1930s, her many employers including a Jewish insurance broker, the German Broadcasting Corporation and, eventually, Joseph Goebbels. Christopher Hampton’s play is based on the testimony she gave when she finally broke her silence to a group of Austrian filmmakers, shortly before she died in 2016.”
The play was 100 minutes and ran straight through with no interval (it would have been impossible to break). The theatre had kindly provided both water and cough sweets, which I thought was a nice touch. The last time we were there last year to see Julius Caesar it was done in the round but this time they used a thrust stage as it is a very adaptable theatre.
Throughout the play Maggie Smith as Brunhilde sat alone on stage at a table with a kitchen set in the background that gradually faded from view and the table moved imperceptibly forward towards the audience. She addressed us all conversationally telling her life story with pauses, hesitations, digressions, and moments where she berated her failing memory. It appeared to be an account of a completely ordinary life beginning with her earliest memories of World War I breaking out, having to leave school to help her mother, getting a job and learning excellent shorthand, how much she enjoyed life in Berlin and her first boyfriend. There were the odd throwaway lines that pointed to the times she was living through, her brothers were brown shirts, she noticed who was Jewish and who wasn’t (her first employer and her closest friend were both Jewish) and her boyfriend was a Nazi who took her to a rally “a crowd of men with BO”. She insisted throughout that she wasn’t political and didn’t really know what was going on even as her first employer’s business failed and she started to notice there weren’t so many Jews around. A major moment in her life was when she could first vote and she thought that maybe she voted for the Nazis but professed not to really remember. Kristallnacht was a difficult memory just glanced upon. In the meantime she told us about the rest of her life, the good money she was earning, the job at the state broadcaster and what a great time she had. Her Jewish friend didn’t have the money to eat and what money she did have she spent on cigarettes, we were told critically, but they still saw each other though less frequently. Then Brunhilde’s excellent shorthand meant she was transferred to the Propaganda Ministry and came into the orbit of Goebbels, though she told us she was just a typist who didn’t work for him personally and didn’t really know what she was doing. She just typed it out but always had to increase the numbers of atrocities by the other side after the war began. Goebbels was handsome but too short and when she saw him at a rally that she had been instructed to go to (so she said), she was horrified and referred to him as a “demented midget”.
It was all absolutely riveting as Dame Maggie fidgeted with her glasses and turned from side to side confiding in us, repeatedly stressing that she knew nothing and wasn’t political. There were moments as the war drew to a close that elicited some audible gasps from the audience, particularly the fate of Goebbels’ children. Pomsel spent five years in prison after the war, first in Buchenwald, but professes she knew nothing about what was happening to the Jews in concentration camps, though she knew that concentration camps existed. More recently she had tried to find out what happened to her Jewish friend, only to discover she had died in Auschwitz.
Finally, with the rest of the stage in darkness and only her face spotlighted we were told that “there is no Justice” in the world. The Germans were stupid and no-one would fall for so much hot air these days (cue hollow laughter from the audience). At the end she stressed that she didn’t feel guilty as she didn’t know what was going on. We were left wondering whether that was really true, how much she was fooling herself or fooling us and most importantly, what we would we have done. Probably like her just get on with our lives and tell ourselves we didn’t know afterwards.
It was an extraordinary performance, powerful and naturalistic, making us wonder about the nature of guilt and who should be judged guilty. It was a pretty gruelling evening, though the play had humorous moments, and we were both pretty shattered at the end of it but I am really glad we were finally able to see Dame Maggie and she was most definitely worth the wait.
On a much lighter theatrical note we went to see Six, the musical about Henry VIII's wives a few weeks ago and it was enormous fun. The music isn't our usual style at all, but it was all performed with such enormous verve and energy that we were absolutely charmed.
Here are the Six (behind the cut) performing at the Olivier Awards in the Royal Albert Hall (not the best acoustic).
In other news as a rather unexpected result of the B..... word we've just had our house painted. One of our neighbours usually works as a carpenter and builder for a firm that deals with the National Trust and other restoration organisations but as money is tight at the moment (thanks to the millions spent on the B word) Andy, our neighbour, had some time on his hands so asked if we'd like our house painted. As this was next on our list of projects we said an enthusiastic "Yes". All because I joked with him last year when he was painting his own house if he'd like to come and do ours next. We are delighted as he's fixed lots of little things that needed attention, he was happy pottering about painting and his wife was happy as he was busy not getting in her way. Result all round.
A German Life, written by Christopher Hampton and based on an Austrian documentary about a woman called Brunhilde Pomsel is described by the Bridge Theatre website, better than I can, like this “Brunhilde Pomsel’s life spanned the twentieth century. She struggled to make ends meet as a secretary in Berlin during the 1930s, her many employers including a Jewish insurance broker, the German Broadcasting Corporation and, eventually, Joseph Goebbels. Christopher Hampton’s play is based on the testimony she gave when she finally broke her silence to a group of Austrian filmmakers, shortly before she died in 2016.”
The play was 100 minutes and ran straight through with no interval (it would have been impossible to break). The theatre had kindly provided both water and cough sweets, which I thought was a nice touch. The last time we were there last year to see Julius Caesar it was done in the round but this time they used a thrust stage as it is a very adaptable theatre.
Throughout the play Maggie Smith as Brunhilde sat alone on stage at a table with a kitchen set in the background that gradually faded from view and the table moved imperceptibly forward towards the audience. She addressed us all conversationally telling her life story with pauses, hesitations, digressions, and moments where she berated her failing memory. It appeared to be an account of a completely ordinary life beginning with her earliest memories of World War I breaking out, having to leave school to help her mother, getting a job and learning excellent shorthand, how much she enjoyed life in Berlin and her first boyfriend. There were the odd throwaway lines that pointed to the times she was living through, her brothers were brown shirts, she noticed who was Jewish and who wasn’t (her first employer and her closest friend were both Jewish) and her boyfriend was a Nazi who took her to a rally “a crowd of men with BO”. She insisted throughout that she wasn’t political and didn’t really know what was going on even as her first employer’s business failed and she started to notice there weren’t so many Jews around. A major moment in her life was when she could first vote and she thought that maybe she voted for the Nazis but professed not to really remember. Kristallnacht was a difficult memory just glanced upon. In the meantime she told us about the rest of her life, the good money she was earning, the job at the state broadcaster and what a great time she had. Her Jewish friend didn’t have the money to eat and what money she did have she spent on cigarettes, we were told critically, but they still saw each other though less frequently. Then Brunhilde’s excellent shorthand meant she was transferred to the Propaganda Ministry and came into the orbit of Goebbels, though she told us she was just a typist who didn’t work for him personally and didn’t really know what she was doing. She just typed it out but always had to increase the numbers of atrocities by the other side after the war began. Goebbels was handsome but too short and when she saw him at a rally that she had been instructed to go to (so she said), she was horrified and referred to him as a “demented midget”.
It was all absolutely riveting as Dame Maggie fidgeted with her glasses and turned from side to side confiding in us, repeatedly stressing that she knew nothing and wasn’t political. There were moments as the war drew to a close that elicited some audible gasps from the audience, particularly the fate of Goebbels’ children. Pomsel spent five years in prison after the war, first in Buchenwald, but professes she knew nothing about what was happening to the Jews in concentration camps, though she knew that concentration camps existed. More recently she had tried to find out what happened to her Jewish friend, only to discover she had died in Auschwitz.
Finally, with the rest of the stage in darkness and only her face spotlighted we were told that “there is no Justice” in the world. The Germans were stupid and no-one would fall for so much hot air these days (cue hollow laughter from the audience). At the end she stressed that she didn’t feel guilty as she didn’t know what was going on. We were left wondering whether that was really true, how much she was fooling herself or fooling us and most importantly, what we would we have done. Probably like her just get on with our lives and tell ourselves we didn’t know afterwards.
It was an extraordinary performance, powerful and naturalistic, making us wonder about the nature of guilt and who should be judged guilty. It was a pretty gruelling evening, though the play had humorous moments, and we were both pretty shattered at the end of it but I am really glad we were finally able to see Dame Maggie and she was most definitely worth the wait.
On a much lighter theatrical note we went to see Six, the musical about Henry VIII's wives a few weeks ago and it was enormous fun. The music isn't our usual style at all, but it was all performed with such enormous verve and energy that we were absolutely charmed.
Here are the Six (behind the cut) performing at the Olivier Awards in the Royal Albert Hall (not the best acoustic).
Click to viewIn other news as a rather unexpected result of the B..... word we've just had our house painted. One of our neighbours usually works as a carpenter and builder for a firm that deals with the National Trust and other restoration organisations but as money is tight at the moment (thanks to the millions spent on the B word) Andy, our neighbour, had some time on his hands so asked if we'd like our house painted. As this was next on our list of projects we said an enthusiastic "Yes". All because I joked with him last year when he was painting his own house if he'd like to come and do ours next. We are delighted as he's fixed lots of little things that needed attention, he was happy pottering about painting and his wife was happy as he was busy not getting in her way. Result all round.