This is a pregnant time to tell the story of the 1933 arrest of Hannah Arendt (the titular character of Mrs Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library), the philosopher and theorist perhaps most famous for her concept of ‘the banality of evil’. With instances of antisemitism in the UK at highly alarming levels, authoritarian ideology increasingly visible in political discourse around the world and a state of Israel that seems determined to undermine its own legitimacy, a play set in a Gestapo prison cell that tackles Nazism, Zionism and questions of Jewish assimilation is a bold and powerful choice.
As a production, Mrs Stern is an undeniable success. Its claustrophobic prison cell setting and tight running time make for an intense experience. The set-up is unashamedly Kafkaesque – indeed, he gets an overt reference. Hannah is even asked to sign a form confirming she has requested her own arrest.
The script is thoughtful and clever, if occasionally a little emotionless and so intellectual writer Jenny Lyn Bader has essentially needed to add footnotes for the audience. Enough philosophers are name-dropped to form an entire convention, while jokes – and genuinely funny ones at that – come in Latin and Ancient Greek.
Ella Kaille makes for a Hannah made slippery by necessity, desperately trying to tread whatever line is required to get her out alive without compromising her own beliefs too much. She constantly placates and soothes her captor with her whole body, dancing on quicksand as the rules of the game keep changing. When left alone, her upright bearing collapses as she slumps to the floor or onto a chair, hardly able to bear the strain.
Opposite her, Brett Temple’s Gestapo officer Karl is a surprisingly sympathetic presence. He is awkward and clumsy in his first week in the job – ‘you’re my first’, he rather sweetly tells Hannah of her arrest – unsure of how the interrogation is supposed to go. Karl is written as bright and thoughtful, a man increasingly unhappy with his duty to lock up the brilliantly intellectual Hannah who he comes to regard with considerable affection.
And it is here that Mrs Stern slightly comes undone, perhaps as Bader tries to balance too many competing priorities. Karl the Nazi comes off rather more sympathetically then Erich (played in this performance by Drew Hirshfield as a naïve, rather ambiguous character) the Jewish Zionist lawyer. Presumably this is to underscore the idea that human connection can exist even in appalling circumstances, and as a nod to Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’. While it is valuable to be made to confront the humanity of those who do terrible things, at this moment in time the contrast comes across somewhat awkwardly.
The play also deals with the subject of Zionism with such subtlety it would be easy to come away from it with a misunderstanding of Hannah’s political leanings in the 1930s. In this, matters are not helped by Arendt’s own complex and changing views on Zionism. What is undoubtedly true is that at the time the play is set, she supported Zionist activities and collaborated with German Zionists, even if her views on the movement shifted over time. This complexity does not come across in a satisfactory way (it would need a whole play to itself to do so), and is possibly further hindered by just how difficult it is to talk about Zionism thoughtfully today.
However, these are minor thematic quibbles in what is a well-written, well-acted play. Mrs Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library may not get everything right, but it succeeds with more than enough to make for an enthralling piece of theatre.
Performed at the Traverse Theatre on 14 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe
Until 30 August, see website for dates and times
Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes, no interval
Written by Jenny Lyn Bader
Directed by Ari Laura Kreith
Designed by Lauren Helpern
Cast: Ella Kaille, Brett Temple, Drew Hirshfield (until 16 Aug), Daniel Adam Cantor (from 18 Aug)