Written over a decade apart, South African born Ronald Harwood’s intelligent and thought provoking dramas make excellent companion pieces, but can also be enjoyed and appreciated separately. Both concern themselves with the role of famous musicians during the Second World War, posing questions about their behaviour when faced with dangerously difficult moral choices.
In Taking Sides (which dates from 1995), the focus is on Wilhelm Furtwangler, the German conductor who was highly esteemed by Hitler but managed to save the lives of several Jews before finally fleeing to Switzerland towards the end of the War. Set in the American Zone of occupied Berlin in 1946, it sees him under pressure from an uncultured US Major (a former insurance claims investigator) who has witnessed the horrors of Belsen and is determined to push him into confessing to having been a member of the Nazi party – an accusation which, like the loyal members of his orchestra, he vehemently denies.
Michael Pennington endows Furtwangler with a haughty, hurt weariness as he defends the role of his art and the correctness of his actions, whilst David Horovitch is superb as the driven Major Arnold, unshakeable in his belief that compromise cannot be acceptable under a Fascist regime.
Up to a point, Collaboration (written in 2008, and somewhat slower to grip) provides some of the answers to what motivated those who did not openly defy (or flee from) the Third Reich. It follows the friendship between the German composer Richard Strauss (another fine performance from Pennington) and his Austrian Jewish librettist, Stefan Zweig (Horovitch, again, in subtle, restrained mode) as it comes under increasing strain with the rise of Hitler.
Already an old man in 1931, Strauss is reinvigorated by this new artistic collaboration, but whilst Zweig is under no illusion as to what is happening to his beloved Europe, Strauss naively believes that his reputation is, in itself, sufficient to defy a totalitarian authority - until, that is, Martin Hutson’s chilling Nazi official icily forces him to bear in mind that his daughter-in-law and hence his grandchildren are Jewish.
Ambiguity abounds and, at the end of these penetrating and rewarding productions, the uneasy question still remains - what would you have done in their shoes?
Duchess, Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA (0844 412 4659) Charing Cross tube, nimaxtheatres.com Until 29th August (£21 - £46 each show , multishow offers available)
