Original and daring performance at Warwick Arts Centre

The stage is a single giant cinema screen, into which are cut three panels. These open and shut to reveal or conceal actors playing the creation of a film. We see scenes only, fragments divided by the director’s call of “cut!” The action they are playing concerns the final moments of World War II in Europe, what in German is expressed as Stunde Null, or ‘The Zero Hour’ - the moment when the German forces surrendered to the Allies in Berlin. The scenes evoke cameos of post-war film noir: a dark ruined city, mysterious agents, double dealings and doomed alliances. All the actors’ movements are portrayed live on the big screen, their techniques adapted for film projection.

For most of us, World War II is encapsulated in film images. This production sees those images as fragments, frames on a screen, magnified into icons of transformation. The plot, if there is one, concerns the arbitrariness of history and the impossibility of finding certainty.

If you like your drama straightforward and character-based, this probably isn’t for you. But if you are prepared to enter into the spectacle and suspend logical disbelief, I think you will find this play is simply one of the most original, daring and stimulating performances you are likely to see on stage today.

Nick Le Mesurier