by Rolf Hochhuth
Translated by Robert David MacDonald
Directed by Kate Wasserberg
Designed by Alex Marker
Costume Design by Fiona Hopkins.
Lighting by Tom White. Sound Design by Crispin Anderson.
Produced by Susannah Stevens for BRAWL and the Finborough Theatre

The Cast:
Nuncio - Peter Stenson
Riccardo - Oliver Pengelly
Priest - Michael Lovatt
Gerstein - Steve Sarossy
Jacobson - Matthew Bates
Doctor - David Kershaw
Vittorio - Peter Stenson
Photographer - Leander Deeny
Fontana Snr - Edmund Dehn
Cardinal - Jack Klaff
Swiss Guard - Michael Lovatt
Lothar - William McGeough
Julia - Denise McCormack
Luccani - Dehn
Claudia - Kelly Alexander / Matilda Castry
Rolf - Roy Arvatz / Oscar Redif
Smart Italian - Matthew Bates
Witzel - Leander Deeny
Delinquent - David Kershaw
Simonetta - Stephanie Thomas
Abbot - Robert Gillespie
Salzer - Michael Lovatt
Carlotta - Stephanie Thomas
Manufacturer - Jack Klaff
Pope Pius - Simon Molloy
Writer - Matthew Bates
Fritsche -William McGeough
Kapo - Michael Lovatt

[ rediscoveries season ]

18 July – 12 August 2006

**** Four Stars, Time Out

ONE OF THE TOP FIVE SHOWS IN LONDON - THE INDEPENDENT

“This is a magnificent, mammoth, must-see drama...A terrific piece of theatre.”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

"The Representative of Christ on earth – and you shut your eyes to the most horrible thing that man has ever done to man. You keep silent, while every hour…Every hour, Excellency, every hour, new victims – these are murder factories. Factories. Can’t you understand at all?”

Europe, 1942. The Nazi State is committing genocide on a scale the world has never witnessed – the extermination of the Jews. Only a protest from the Vatican could possibly halt the slaughter. In a play which travels from Berlin to the heart of the Vatican and finally into the crematoriums of Auschwitz, two men try desperately to convince Pope Pius XII to break his silence and publicly condemn Hitler, as the play hurtles towards a bewildering, powerful and sickening conclusion.

Rolf Hochhuth’s epic is one of the most controversial post-war dramas ever written. Based on his research into Vatican activities during World War II, the play’s treatment of Pope Pius XII and the Church made it the object of violent praise and violent denunciation. Following the Finborough Theatre’s 2004Time Out Critics’ Choice production of Hochhuth’s Soldiers, Artistic Director Neil McPherson has commissioned exciting young director Kate Wasserberg to direct the first London production of The Representative since Peter Brook's original RSC production in 1963 and the play’s second only UK revival.

Playwright Rolf Hochhuth (1931- ) remains best known for The Representative (also known as The Deputy) and Soldiers (which also received its first London production since the premiere at the Finborough Theatre where it sold out and was named Time Out Critics' Choice). The play is translated by Robert David MacDonald (1928-2004), Co-Director of the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow for 32 years and the translator of over seventy plays and operas from ten different languages.

Directed by Kate Wasserberg. At the Finborough Theatre, she has directed the sell-out I Wish to Die Singing, The New Morality and Molnar Shorts and – as former Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre – she was Assistant Director on the UK premiere of Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold (Time Out Critics Choice), The Gigli Concert with Paul McGann, Catherine Cusack and Niall Buggy and Albert’s Boy with Victor Spinetti. Other Assisting includes The Blue Room (Theatre Royal Bath) and Schiller’s Passion and Politics (Young Vic). She recently completed the National Theatre Studio’s Directors Course. Other directing includes Doing Lines (Pleasance London), and Test Drive (Soho Theatre Studio). The play is designed by Alex Marker, Associate Designer of the Finborough Theatre, who has recently won huge critical acclaim for his designs for Soldiers, Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ , Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Albert’s Boy, Lark Rise to Candleford and Red Night.

The cast includes: Matthew Bates’ theatre credits include the West End and Birmingham Rep; Leander Deeny recently graduated from LAMDA; Robert Gillespie’s stage credits include the RSC, National Theatre and The Peter Hall Company as well as extensive television appearances; Finborough regular David Kershaw's credits include Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist (London and National Tour) and Bergerac (BBC); Jack Klaff’s stage credits include Glasgow Citizens, Theatr Clwyd, Donmar Warehouse, Bristol Old Vic and the RSC; Michael Lovatt previously appeared at the Finborough in Lark Rise to Candleford; Denise McCormack’s stage credits include The Weir (Nuffield Theatre Company); William McGeough recently graduated from the Drama Centre; Simon Molloy’s extensive stage credits include the Royal National Theatre, Manchester Library, Hampstead Theatre, Sheffield Crucible, Leicester Haymarket and Young Vic; Oliver Pengelly recently graduated from RADA; Steve Sarossy’s stage credits include the Young Vic, the Old Vic and the RSC; Peter Stenson’s has worked extensive with The Steam Industry; and Finborough regular Stephanie Thomas returns after appearing in I Wish to Die Singing and The Beaver Coat.

“The play is a work of such immense scope and power that it becomes one of those works which cannot be compared to anything: they demand that other works be compared to them. Europe has produced nothing since the end of the war to set beside its profundity, its compassion, its understanding.” Bernard Levin, The Daily Mail

The Press on The Representative

ONE OF THE TOP FIVE SHOWS IN LONDON - THE INDEPENDENT

* * * * Four Stars Time Out

“The play is a work of such immense scope and power that it becomes one of those works which cannot be compared to anything: they demand that other works be compared to them” Bernard Levin, The Daily Mail

“This is a magnificent, mammoth, must-see drama…A terrific piece of theatre.”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

“This is a play [with] greater moral scope and polemical content than a contemporary audience is used to.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out

“A thoughtful and thought-provoking piece of theatre”
Alistair Smith, The Stage

“Both engaging and thought provoking”
Mike Williams, Vanguard

"Kate Wasserberg directs an admirably incisive and complex study in the ethics of politics"
Robert Hanks, The Independent

"The German playwright Rolf Hochhüth has always stirred controversy…The play now gets its first London revival in some 40 years at the Finborough, a fringe champion of Hochhüth’s work in the past.”
Ian Johns, The Times

“Political thriller and urgent moral debate forcefully presented...It’s revealed as an intricate argument between realpolitik, experience and ideals. This thrillingly combines with sheer narrative pace in later scenes”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

“One has to admire the tremendous ambition of the Finborough Theatre”
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

“It remains an intriguing, not to say sad, dramatisation on the theme of personal responsibility, giving certain lines a horribly ironic resonance in view of the current situation in the Middle East. “
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

“This edgy mix of physically comfortable debate and degrading, deadly reality.”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

“The play builds into a powerful plea that moral responsibility rests with everyone.”
Ian Johns, The Times

"A profound examination of the limits of moral responsibility"
Robert Hanks, The Independent

“Kate Wasserberg’s production…reveals the power…of Hochhuth’s style of righteous documentary drama. Like Soldiers, The Representative is a powerful polemic”
Jonathan Caines, Church Times

“Kate Wasserberg’s clear, forceful production is acted with a freshness and understanding”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

"Kate Wasserberg's admirably clear production"
Robert Hanks, The Independent

“Wasserberg’s direction keeps the action lucid and atmospheric through minimal means.”
Ian Johns, The Times

"Kate Wasserberg's production is admirably ambitious"
John Nathan, Jewish Chronicle

“Kate Wasserberg…emphasises the equivocation and the detail in Hochhuth’s examination of Vatican complicity, though she thankfully halves the seven-hour run-time.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out

“Simon Molloy’s sensitive performance”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

“Jack Klaff’s cardinal is wonderfully worldly - a Polonius in pink silk, political opportunism sheathed in harrumphing camp.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out

“Oliver Pengelly’s Fontana, Steve Sarossy as the confessing SS officer, and Jack Klaff’s slightly camp cardinal, whose hearty bonhomie hides a wily operator, deliver committed performances.”
Ian Johns, The Times

“The extensive cast…do a fine job. Especially impressive are Steve Sarossy and Oliver Pengelly”
Jonathan Caines, Church Times

"The Gestapo whistleblower Steve Sarossy has a fevered urgency"
John Nathan, Jewish Chronicle

“Steve Sarossy...is an enigmatic Obersturmführer Gerstein…Sarossy finds a veil of shiftiness that is very intriguing”
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

“Oliver Pengelly delivers an intense performance in this difficult role, as does Steve Sarossy in the role of Gerstein”
Jonathan Caines, Church Times

“Oliver Pengelly’s youthful Father Riccardo could be a Jesuit poster boy; all ramrod-backed, doe-eyed moral action.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out

“Oliver Pengelly is undoubtedly a find – utterly convincing as a young priest tormented by guilt and the true meaning of his faith and Christ's teachings in practise.”
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

“David Kershaw brings a diabolical relish to the part of a concentration-camp doctor”
Jonathan Caines, Church Times

“David Kershaw…truly inspired performance”
Clair Whitefield, MusicOmH.com

“Played here with demonic relish by David Kershaw, Hochhuth's Auschwitz Doctor – presumably Mengele – is evil incarnate…I have nothing but praise for Kershaw”
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

“The confident authority of David Kershaw’s sneering Nazi doctor”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

“Michael Lovatt’s excellent turn as the Head of the German Police”
Jonathan Caines, Church Times

“Stephanie Thomas, so excellent in last month’s The Beaver Coat…brings sensitivity and dignity to the part”
Jonathan Dory, Rogues and vaagbonds

“Played earnestly and sympathetically by Matthew Bates”
Clair Whitefield, MusicOmH.com

“Designer Alex Marker who has a habit of working wonders on a minimal budget.”
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

“The costumes too are a wonder, creating the right impression for priests, prisoners and soldiers”
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

“Tom White's lighting cues work wonders in suggesting transitions from Papal to Nazi office, Rome apartments and finally Auschwitz. Red robes swish, swastika uniforms strut.”
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

Image - The Concordat by Fritz Herschberger. Copyright Regis Foundation, Minneapolis, MN.
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