by dick kerekes dickkerekes@yahoo.com
The drama department at Florida Community College, South Campus, under the direction of Professor of Theatre, Ken McCulough, has done many cutting edge plays over the years such as Blood Brothers and The Laramie Project. None have been as provocative and contentious as last weekend’s production of Good.
This play debuted in l982, and was written by the late C.P. Taylor, a Jew who lived in England during WWII.
The title refers to the main character, Professor Halder, who was considered a good family man, a good German and a good teacher that is until he came to the attention of the Nazi party because he wrote a pro-euthanasia novel. He gets involved in the Nazi cause, even becoming an SS officer and assisting the infamous Adolph Eichmann at the Auschwitz death camp.
Since this is an after the fact review, I will not go further into the plot. The history of Nazi Germany and the holocaust has been the subject of many books and movies and, though it happened 60 years ago, writers and filmmakers are still exploring it. (Good-it is being made into a movie for release in 2008.)
This two-act play is set in the mind of John Halder and a series of many scenes that are connected by the music in his head, which is sung by the cast. How an entire population and certain individuals can be swept up into an idea or ideology is the thrust of the play, and I think it effectively pursued this topic.
The play was presented in FCCJ’s black box theatre, with seating on three sides and the stage bare except for chairs that were brought on and off by the actors. The costumes reflected the period right down to the SS uniforms.
In some productions of this play the 20 musical selections specified by the playwright are just played instrumentally, but Director McCulough had all of his actors singing at various times.
The major supporting roles were well cast, in some cases a bit young for the role, but I had to remember this is a college production. I was impressed by David Farrington as Maurice, Halder’s Jewish friend, Kasi Walters as Halder’s wife Helen, Mary Cumpton as Halder’s blind mother and Chelsa Donovan. Zdravko Rozic was convincing as the SS Major (Freddie) who thinks nothing about killing Jews, but worries that he can’t get his wife pregnant as prescribed by the party line.
Justin Reynolds appeared only in Act I as Hitler, portraying him part of the time as Charlie Chaplin. If you are a student of this period you will recognize the names of other Nazis like Eichmann played by Robert Thames, and Philip Bouller played by Kevin Gilbert. Others in the cast were, Dee Riche, Lexie Murray, Meghan Haines, Matt Mercurio and Cory Chance.
In the leading role of Professor John Halder was David Mechoso, in a tour de force performance. He was on the stage the entire 2 l/2 hours of the play and probably had 70% of the lines. I cannot imagine anyone doing this role any better. Mechoso was mesmerizing as he moved around the stage, never missing a line or a cue and holding us on the edge of our seats until his final downfall, as the prisoners band at Auschwitz played at the final curtain.
This play asked an important question for the audience and for me. How would I have reacted if my career, my wife, my children were in jeopardy if I did not tow the line and accept the Nazi ideology? The play only ran for one weekend, but watch for the movie due to be released in 2008. Thanks DramaWorks for an insightful evening of theatre.
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