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Taken at Midnight, Theatre Royal Haymarket
By Sophia Longhi
"I prayed for the outside world to intervene." The image of Kenji Goto's mother, wiping her eyes after pleading with ISIS to release her video journalist son, is the thing that I remember when I hear news updates of the story.
It is Penelope Wilton, in her role as Irmgard Litten, who reads this line, speaks these words. The reality that Goto's mother is living through, and all of the mothers with taken children, at once became startlingly close.Irmgard Litten was the mother of a young lawyer, Hans Litten, who was arrested in the early hours of February 28th 1933 on the night of the Reichstag Fire, and taken into protective custody. He had taken Adolf Hitler to trial two years before and had ran rings around him in the courtroom, exposing the ludicrousness behind his ideas. It was a public humiliation for Hitler. Held as a political prisoner, he was batted around camp to camp over a five year period, and through all of that time, his mother fought tirelessly for his release.
Mark Hayhurst's Taken At Midnight focuses on Irmgard Litten's fight; a mother's plight. After writing a TV drama documentary about the story, in which Irmgard Litten played only a small part, it was decided that the play should focus on her and her struggle to find her son. It is this dimension that allows us, as an audience, to connect to the story, that knots our collective gut, that breaks our heart. We are mothers, we have mothers; this is something that resonates with all of us.
Hayhurst reminds us of what we are: animals. The Gestapo officer, Dr Conrad, who Irmgard has managed to communicate with, shares a story with her that concludes: 'The fathers fall away - the mothers fight on'. I picture a mother elephant unwilling to leave her weak and dying calf, while the father has walked away with the rest of the herd. I think of a lioness protecting her cubs to her scrappy, fearless death. Penelope Wilton is animal-like in her pacing across the stage, in her snarling, snapping delivery of smart remarks. You believe, without doubt, that she will fight to the death; brave and unfaltering.It is the less obvious interpretations of Irmgard's character and emotions that makes Wilton's performance a fantastic one. The loosely-clenched, but ready-for-battle fists. The raised chin for defiance, the braced body for bad news. The slouched shoulders in despair. The shrill 'Heil Hitler' that grows more startling the more desperate she becomes. Irmgard herself described this greeting as a 'war-cry', and Wilton's delivery was indeed something that alerted distress signals in one's brain.
The play also reflects the fairness of a mother: light and shade. Light and shade is a continuous theme throughout. The three beaten and bruised prisoners could, at once, remind one of a comedy trio - the Three Stooges, perhaps. They consider the actions of the Nazis: are they evil or absurd? The light and shade of humanity. The light and shade of a person in Dr Conrad. The light and shade of hope and despair - and we see this symbolised with the almost ethereal use of shafts of light that beam onto the stage. Irmgard poignantly argues, as she tries to get closer to finding Hans, 'You can't blanket every shaft of light.' The news that Hans has a window in his new cell spells hope, yet the dark shadows of the Gestapo officers always loom large and menacing. Even the setting in which we watch the play itself: the beautiful, gilded auditorium is in stalk contrast to the brutal, soulless stage set.In a scene between Irmgard and Dr Conrad, the nature of woman and man is debated. Irmgard concludes that men think, and that women just act. We watch as Irmgard acts - and thinks - and even a considered thought still returns to instinct. 'Take me instead', is the offer she brings to the table, an offer that any mother would make.
Taken At Midnight is a play that triumphs in its universality and its striking relevance to something that we are seeing on the news every day. With its spectacular cast, empathy prevails and we are both empowered and heartbroken at a mother's courage and unbreakable spirit. The women fight on.
‘Taken At Midnight’ by Mark Hayhurst
Directed by Jonathan Church
Theatre Royal Haymarket
15th Jan – 14th MarchTickets: £15 - £59.50Buy Tickets here:
