At one point during Ivo van Hove’s production of the interestingly creative yet maddeningly tortoise-paced production of The Damned, a crucial line appears in English supertitles. “The complicity of the German people is the miracle of the Third Reich.” A headline in today’s New York Times: “As Trump Struggles With Helsinki’s Fallout, Congress Faces a New Charge: Complicity.” A very interesting time for this piece to be showcased in the large Park Avenue Armory space in collaboration with the Comédie-Française who premiered this work at the Avignon Festival in 2016.
The Damned is a renowned 1969 film by Luchino Visconti. It was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar and named Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review. The plot centers around the Essenbeck family and their steelworks business as Adolph Hitler is coming to power in 1930’s Germany. The story is a thinly veiled reference to the Essen-based Krupp family of steel industrialists. A soap opera that would make the TV show Dynasty blush, The Damned has murders, double crossings, incest, child molestation, a homosexual orgy and a row of coffins placed on the side of a massive set.
The play begins with the 1933 burning of the Reischtag (home of the German parliament) one month after Hitler became Chancellor. Building on anti-communist hysteria, the event was immediately politicized. Hitler convinced President Hindenburg to issue a decree suspending most civil liberties including freedoms of expression, the press, the right of public assembly, as well as eliminating the secrecy of the post and the telegraph. Four months later Hitler carried out a series of political executions in order to consolidate his power. The subjects of those attacks were the SA (Storm Troopers), millions of whom helped the Nazi’s rise to power since the 1920’s. The leader of the SA was Ernst Rohm whose brutish behavior, heavy drinking and homosexuality offended conservative elements. The Night of the Long Knives is portrayed as a stylized orgy scene before turning into a bloody execution.
Using a camera, the play is also projected on a large screen. There are close-ups and historical footage used effectively to enhance the storytelling. My reaction was appreciation for creativity rather than a total embrace. The pacing was deliberately very slow. The repeating processions to the coffins was visually arresting the first time, with diminished results thereafter. The orgy scene was indulgent and would have had the same impact in half the time. If The Damned was a half hour shorter, I believe it would have been just as stylized without also being plodding.
The subject matter, however, is beyond intriguing for today’s audiences. A politician rising to power attacking established personal freedoms, including the press. A political party embedding itself with the armament business. A warning that the complicity of people led to the end of democracy and the rise of the Third Reich. The play ends spectacularly. I walked out of the theater pondering how the tale of America at the beginning of the 21st Century will be told eighty years from now.