☀☀☀☀☀
There hasn't been a full theatrical production at Leith Theatre for thirty years and what a way to return. Co-director John Paul McGroarty has long held an ambition to get theatre back into the building. He and Yuri Birte Anderson have realised that ambition in quite a spectacular and stunning way. They've reanimated Leith Theatre with an ambitious reimagining of Karl Kraus's The Last Days of Mankind a viscerally stunning examination of war and its effects on people and psyche. It captures the collective madness of a population caught up and enraptured by the myths perpetrated by politicians and the media. Kraus used material from real speeches and newspaper reports to illustrate the madness that descends and makes the unbelievable real and the real unbelievable. As Kraus said himself 'the most improbably deeds reported here really took place'.
The production is international bringing together a cast from Scotland, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, France and Ireland and in that there is a echo of an lament to the fracturing of the post war European idea that has brought peace and not the unutterable horror of total war but now faces, with Brexit and the rise of populist right wing politics an uncertain future but some frighteningly familiar threats.
The staging and lighting is impressive. However it is the commitment of the actors and the sheer physicality of their performances which hit home powerfully whether it is the recurring newspaper seller becoming increasing deranged and ultimately empty in his exhortation of extra, extra edition or the philosophical discourse between the two Kraus's commenting cynically and optimistically of the progress of the war. The most disturbing scenes were for me the one where three actors disrobed and were transformed into disabled war wounded and in doing so provided the counterpoint to the mother who said enthusiastically of her son that she would rather he died gloriously at the front than came home permanently maimed. The other scene was the dinner party where the wealthy presented caricatures,, charades style of their fellow humans in the horror of war before one of them appears naked in a gas mask.
A masterstroke is the involvement of the cabaret group The Tiger Lillies who have scored the production with a stunning set of songs which really add to the impact of the piece, punctuating and highlighting the dramatic flow as the characters teeter off kilter into collective madness. Their songs the describe the euphoria of belief over all others and also the degradation and humiliation of the deterioration of humanity. They add greatly to the atmosphere and depict a world straight out of Otto Dix both lyrically and in appearance.
As a first production at the newly reinvigorated Leith Theatre this production has shown the possibilities of the space and the willingness to imagine that fantastic things can be presented there. The Last Days of Mankind is a tremendous tour de force and a salutary anti-war howl at time when contemporary politics needs to wake up to the threats to peace and democracy. That the opening night was on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day and staged in a theatre that was bombed in WW2 makes it even more poignant. It is also playing during the week that the neo-fascist ideologue disruptor Steve Bannon is in Edinburgh. Art imitates real life just a bit. A dramatic warning from history. Well done to all involved in bringing this timely retelling to the stage.
Text of the play https://novembereditions.com/books/the-last-days-of-mankind-by-karl-kraus/
The Tiger Lillies score https://www.tigerlillies.com/blog/2018/11/12/the-last-days-of-mankind-digital-album-release
More about Leith Theatre https://www.leiththeatretrust.org/
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