The Representative

★★★★ 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

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.

“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

Image – The Concordat by Fritz Herschberger. Copyright Regis Foundation, Minneapolis, MN.
Presented with the support of Spiro Ark