By John Nathan
There are few sights more inspiring than Penelope Wilton as Irmgard Litten standing up to the Gestapo. With imperious contempt she swats away a Nazi officer's smug justifications for arresting her lawyer son Hans. In 1931, Hans put Hitler on the stand and humiliated the future Führer by exposing him as a witless rabble rouser. Jonathan Church's gripping production does justice to the true story on which Mark Hayhurst's debut stage play is based. The action is set after Hitler's revenge and concentrates on Irmgard's attempt to get her son released. Martin Hutson's quietly determined Hans brings to mind John Proctor in Miller's The Crucible. Both could have alleviated their suffering by giving their tormentors the lies they want to hear. They have much in common, except Litten was real.