Leopoldstadt

When: 2nd September 2021 (Matinee)

Where: Wyndham's Theatre, London

Writer: Tom Stoppard

Director: Patrick Marber

(Spoilers ahead)

I loved this play. Every single element of this play was so well thought out and came together to create one single cohesive work. The way in which the characters were portrayed, the use of projection and gauze, the sets, the colours, the lighting, the sound; it all appeared so simple and yet the world it created was so detailed. I could not put my finger on one single aspect and say that that was the part that made it, every aspect put together is what made this piece that work of art that it is. As much as I enjoyed this play I'm not sure that enjoy is the correct word, the pure emotions that it managed to convey were at times joyful and at others devastating, the sheer power that this play held over me will be something that I am forever in awe of. 

I didn't know too much about the play going in, I thought it was a play on a Jewish family during the Nazi reign. It was, but it also wasn't. Yes it covered this, but the play lets you in to the story of a family, a normal family with ups and downs. It was the story of their relationships and how everything that was happening around them affected them. They never appeared to be a strongly religious family and they obviously had nothing against anyone else, marrying outside of the Jewish faith. However due to the label that they held as Jewish people, they were pushed and pulled about for nothing other than being Jews. 

The first act of the play sets up everything, it didn't rush into the problems that they would later face. It gave the audience time. Time to make a connection with the characters and time to fully understand who they were. There was joy, happiness and celebration. By building this rapport with the characters it made the later scenes even more powerful. We became so invested in the family that when it was destroyed it affected us deeply.

There were two scenes that broke me the most. The first was the arrival of the Nazi soldiers. I knew of the resentment that the Nazi's held towards the Jews, and I knew of the violence that they inflicted on them. This scene portrayed something different. There was no violence, this scene was purely psychological. There was almost complete silence, the soldier barely shouted, his mere presence caused fear. However the worst part was the way he tricked the children, tried to tease them and belittle them, and the disrespect that he held towards them. As part of the audience I was scared with the family, and I felt angry towards the soldier. It did not feel like I was watching a play, but like I was in the room witnessing it all happen in front of me. 

The other scene was the very last moments of the play. There are only three family members left on stage, but the rest slowly join them like a memory or a family picture. With the whole family stood still behind them one of the men asks about different family members and slowly Rosa lists each family member and the way they died. Working her way around the family behind she talks of suicide, illness, but for many including most of the children she simply states 'Auschwitz'. By the end she repeats Auschwitz multiple times leaving a small break before the last, every time she repeats it it becomes more and more difficult. By the end I was on the verge of crying, and after the lights went up I could see many of the audience members crying and being comforted by others. 

The story that this play showed was deeply human. It created a family that felt so real, and the whole story was brought further into reality by showing pictures of real families from the same period. This story may be one of a family in the 1900's but the issues that it revealed were so relevant to our world today. For me theatre is one of the greatest tools we have for showing people stories that are different to theirs and teaching people to accept each other. Leopoldstadt is a great example of this.