CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
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A chilling portrayal of Heinrich Himmler
SIMON PARSONS reviews an exploration of an infamous psychopath forced to judge his own actions
MENACING: Richard Clothier as Himmler
[Mark Douet]
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip
The End of the Night
Park Theatre, London
BASED on a recorded meeting between Heinrich Himmler and a representative of the World Jewish Congress in the final days of the second world war, this is a little-known encounter with fascinating dramatic potential.
With Berlin awaiting the arrival of the Allied forces, Himmler was persuaded by his physiotherapist to meet a Jewish activist without Hitler’s knowledge to discuss the possible release of concentration camp inmates as an act of goodwill.
Ben Brown’s exploration of this late-night meeting at a hunting lodge just outside Berlin focuses largely on Himmler, played with menacing earnestness and charm by Richard Clothier.
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