Winter Solstice, Traverse

It could be a staff room in a warehouse, or a rehearsal space.  A few cheap tables with the debris of a gathering scattered about.  This unpromising setting becomes the home of liberal middle class couple Bettina and Albert, inhabited by five actors providing dialogue, action and narration so it becomes a multi faceted background.

Xmas is coming and Corinna, Bettina's mother, is here to stay for the holidays.  Already a contentious guest, she brings further tension to the household with the unexpected arrival of Rudolph, a man who Corinna had first met on the train just a few hours before.  Later they are joined by Konrad, Albert's oldest friend, who may be a bit friendlier with Corinna than Albert suspects.

Rudolph is old school, full of charm and perfect manners, and he plays the piano beautifully.  When the others squabble he appears to be playing a placatory role.  Everyone warms to him - although Albert has reservations.  And when Rudolph's political views become clearer, a sinister far right extremism, his charm carries him through.  Albert's suspicions seem churlish to the others, and he ends up doubting himself, a doubt cleverly portrayed when one scene is played through twice, with radically different outcomes.  The moral high ground is hard to find.

Although the plot can be confusing at times, the malevolent nature of Rudolph's beliefs is clear to the audience, but far harder to determine for those caught in their midst.  Could someone so cultured, so suave and educated really be so wrong?  We can so easily believe what we want to believe, and if our own views contradict those of the majority how easy it is just to go along with the latter.

It's a powerful reminder of how easily we can be led into evil, via the most innocuous looking of portals.  And that the current wave of neofascist politics in 'the West' is the greatest threat we now face.  The Trumps and Farages of this world no longer wear jackboots,  But they are just as dangerous.