Review: MYTH, PROPAGANDA AND DISASTER IN NAZI GERMANY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICA at Little Theatre, University Of Adelaide

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 5th May 2018.

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild is presenting Australian playwright, Stephen Sewell's, multiple award winning, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America: a drama in thirty scenes, under the acute direction of Erik Strauts, who has created a tense production with a chilling darkness.

Talbot Finch is an Australian. teaching politics, as part of a Liberal Arts course, in Columbia University in New York, and he is seemingly happily married to an American writer, Eve, who is hoping to have a film script accepted. He has written an academic text and submitted it for publication, under the title, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America. He hopes that publishing an academic work will help him to achieve tenure.

One day, in his office, he is confronted by a strange and unidentified man dressed in black, wearing sunglasses, and toting an automatic pistol. He is beaten and threatened but, like Josef K., in Franz Kafka's, The Trial, which is quoted and referred to several times in this play, he does not know of what he is accused, who the man is, or for whom he works. He never finds out.

In 2003 this play was considered far-fetched. Today, it seems that it was, in fact, prophetic and, now, might even be considered understated. Following the twin towers disaster, the then President, George 'Dubbya' Bush, made his 'war on terror' speech, announcing that the Coalition of the Willing would seek out and destroy the Axis of Evil, the introduction of his Patriot Act. This meant that there would be a need for increased surveillance, and tighter controls. The people, fearing terrorism, were happy to accept this, for their own good, of course. With time, civil rights and freedom of speech have been gradually eroded. The free press has been censored. The 'Land of the Free', is not.

Here in Australia, we have seen the same things happening, with Peter Dutton now the most powerful man in the country, in control of all areas of security, immigration, surveillance, and more. His Border Force is a paramilitary group, he pushed to have the government be given access to the metadata of every person in Australia, and he was narrowly defeated in his attempt to allow the Border Force to patrol Australia, stopping anybody at random on ethnic profiling grounds to have them prove their right to be in the country. His latest effort is to access facial recognition data of the entire population using the Signals Directorate. Added to this, the bulk of the mainstream media is now effectively controlled by one source, the Murdoch machine, backing right-wing parties worldwide. Yes, there is fake news, but Murdoch' media, and Fox News, are the more likely sources.

Talbot Finch complains to the university about the lack of security, but the video surveillance tapes show no sign of the intruder. His head of department turns against him. They want him out as he is becoming too much trouble, or perhaps they have been told to get rid of him. His wife doesn't believe him, until it is too late. There could be a conspiracy, but nothing is clear. Could it even be just paranoia, all happening in his mind, as those around him suggest?

Talbot is played by Nick Fagan, who displays everything that his character endures, from a confident and charismatic teacher, through fear, to anger, and all points in between. Fagan cleverly shows us a man whose academic detachment leaves him confused and bewildered that people might take offence and become emotional over his teaching and his book, any more than if he had offered a mathematical proof of some physical phenomenon.

Jessica Carroll plays his wife, Eve, busy with her own career and absorbed in the success she has with one of her screenplays. Carroll gives a good transition from Eve's initial disbelief, to understanding, to supporting Talbot end, eventually stirring up trouble trying to find him.

Steve Marvanek takes on the role of The Man, an enigmatic, vicious, intelligent, and educated character, in a powerful performance. Marvanek presents a terrifying character who revels in his abuse of Talbot, where the mental is more powerful and damaging than the physical.

Yasmin Martin appears as Marguerite Lee, an overly enthusiastic student who refuses to take the time to go through the proper procedure and book an appointment to see Talbot, visiting him in his room to ask for clarity on an assignment question. Her father is a rich and powerful man and Talbot thinks that The Man might be working for him, even though nothing inappropriate happened between them. Martin is very much the student determined to succeed, and rapt in the ideas of her lecturer, whom she wants to impress.

Fellow Australian and old friend, Max, warns Talbot of the possible consequences of his plans to publish, then also abandons him. It is through Talbot and Max that we see two external views of America, in contrast to the attitudes of the rest, who are inside the system. James Black gives us a very believable pragmatist of the first order, with all of the flexibility needed to succeed

Talbot's Head of Department, Jack, and his wife, Amy, are played by Tim Edhouse and Kyla Booth, and Stan, the department's attorney, and his wife, Jill, by Jarrod Chave and Emma Kerr. Amy is a bitter alcoholic, due in no small degree to being aware that Jack and Jill are having an affair behind Stan's back, the latest for the serial adulterer, Jack.

These four offer fine characterisations and plenty of interest in the interactions within the group, and with outsiders. David Greig and Esther Michelsen, in the minor roles of the security guard and a therapist, also offer well-rounded characters.

Brittany Daw's set and Scott Cleggett's lighting combined superbly to create both spaces and moods. The one thing that I found rather odd, though, was that, although the play is set over a period of time, there were no costume changes. After all these years, this is a hard-hitting play, perhaps even more so, now.

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