Throughout this darkly comic play, translated by Jeremy Sams, we hear snippets of the Nazis’ mounting antisemitic campaign in Paris — from the opening of the Le Juif et la France exhibition to the Vél d'Hiv roundup of 13,000 Jews for deportation — but the play’s focus is on the sweltering drama between Pierre, his wife and his old boss, as they negotiate the psychological fallout of their sexual entanglement amid genocide.
The more their intimacy grows, the more Pierre is seduced by Hitler’s worldview
As Isabelle (Jennifer Kirby) and the Joseph (Alex Waldmann) edge closer, Pierre (Michael Fox) becomes consumed with jealousy, haunted by the notion of his beloved wife being embraced by the Jew in the cellar. The more their intimacy grows, the more Pierre is seduced by Hitler’s worldview. We watch as he tap dances obsessively to Nazi anthems to drown out the exasperated huffs of Isabelle during her monthly rendezvous with Joseph. The claustrophobic staging, where the central three are seldom on stage without each other, is effective at intensifying the domestic horror.
Gradually, the ambitious Pierre is groomed by Otto Abetz, the real-life Nazi ambassador to France, who, when he wasn’t looting the great paintings of France’s Jewry or arranging mass deportations, history remembers as having built up a pro-Berlin network among Parisian intelligentsia. Once an accomplice to his boss’s survival, Fox powerfully encapsulates how his character descends into drunk complicity with the Nazi regime.
The 2018 play won four Molière awards in France, but its London rendition becomes weak when it descends into farce, which it does often. The absurd premise is played mostly for laughs, and puns about “nosy Nazis” spying on Joseph feel cheap. The jeweller’s agony is awkwardly siloed and caricatured, with the exception of the few scenes where he dances with the ghost of his wife or stares tearfully at their photographs.
At the play’s tense climax, Abetz, played with steely resolve by Nigel Harman, and his Nazi-loving French wife Suzanne (Jemima Rooper) dine with the trio for suckling pig, not knowing Joseph’s identity. When Abetz begins extolling Hitler’s ideology, Pierre recites Shylock’s, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” speech, speaking over and for the diminished Jew.
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Nigel Harman as Otto Abetz Photo: Mark Senior[Missing Credit]
The play is structured less by the chilling progress of Nazi ideology in Paris, and more by Isabelle’s menstrual cycle. As we wait to see if the peculiar set-up bears fruit for the couple desperate to conceive, the Holocaust becomes a mere backdrop, raising the stakes of the sexual drama. Joseph is little more than an instrument. He’s the physical vessel for their reproductive success, and a conduit for their moral redemption, allowing the couple to rise as sympathetic opponents of the regime.
As we wait to see if the peculiar set-up bears fruit for the couple desperate to conceive, the Holocaust becomes a mere backdrop
There is much to enjoy in Farewell Mister Haffmann, a masterfully paced 195 minutes that has you hooked for the next jaw-dropping scene. But at other times it is just plain gratuitous. Ultimately, skilful acting isn’t enough to give the drama an emotional centre beyond its taboo-breaking set-up.
★★★
Farewell Mister Haffman is at Park Theatre until April 12
