Judgment Day (Almeida Theatre)

Despite being local, I'm a bit ambivalent towards the Almeida Theatre. I always get the impression that they take themselves terribly seriously as they seem to do Serious Drama only without much in the way of fun. They get tons of funding and plenty of support from rich people, attract lots of star names for their productions and always get outstanding reviews, many of which bemuse me entirely. I've seen a couple of really excellent shows there (Duet for One with a once in a lifetime performance from Juliet Stevenson being a highlight of my theatre going career), but I find so many of them overly earnest and frankly pretentious and dull. I was only vaguely familiar with Ödön von Horvath beforehand as the author of Tales From The Vienna Woods which my grandfather edited (unfortunately for me in German, which I don't know) and it makes me wonder why his plays aren't produced more frequently. In fact, James Macdonald's production is the first fully staged production of Judgment Day in this country, thanks to Christopher Hampton's translation and championing of his work.

Judgment Day doesn't make any explicit references to the Nazis or anti-semitism, but the behaviour of the members of this ghastly provincial town who are quite happy to swap one hate figure for another certainly evokes the way that petty vindictiveness can grow into mob hysteria. It all sounds dreary, but it's absolutely gripping (with a certain amount of sardonic humour) and all the characters are well drawn regardless of their overall importance to the narrative, particularly Sarah Woodward as an increasingly malicious gossip.

Joseph Millson is outstanding as the station master Thomas Hudetz ("such a nice young man, they don't make young men like that anymore...") who has always lived a blameless life and "followed orders and done my duty" until he is 'distracted' by young Anna (a most assured Laura Donnelly), leading to a failure to deliver a signal that leads to a collision on the lines, and both commit perjury. This inevitably leads to horrible consequences. The kiss is witnessed by Hudetz's much maligned older wife (played to neurotic perfection by Suzanne Burden), who is branded a madwoman and pariah. Upon his release from prison, Hudetz is welcomed back into the community as a hero, until the tables turn again...

The staging is remarkably clever, as the train tracks twist and turn at different angles to highlight different locations and perspectives. I also appreciated how it was performed straight through- an interval would have greatly interrupted the suspense.

I was never bored which is high praise for the Almeida. A terrific production and one that's more than worthy of a transfer.