Camp Siegfried Old Vic

It's so annoying this doesn't have rush tickets (yet)

Had a phone call 2 days ago to tell me they’d added extra seats, and checking if I was ok with no longer being on the aisle. Had an email today to say the performance is cancelled as they are reducing the number of performances due to “a slower than anticipated return to theatre by audiences.”

Hmm, that might be what they think but:
£65/£55 for a decent seat. 
Not being sold on TodayTix (with or without discount)
Not being sold ok TKTS (again, with or without discount)
Minimal advertising
2 great actors of course, who may be known to some in the theatre community, but certainly not well known names.

It's not the audiences not returning - it's because their marketing and pricing structure is inadequate for current times and they haven't adapted. You only need to look at certain shows which are selling to know where the market is right now.

(That said, I still loved the play, so please do go!)

Enjoyed this quite a bit, good writing and excellent acting - especially from Patsy Ferran who grows as the play progresses. I thought at first they both looked old for the parts but their acting abilities soon won me over. Not so sure about the aftermath following the big speech. It's a bit like those Shakespeare plays where the remaining characters rake over the embers and then all go off to a feast. Comes down a bit too much.

But have to say that the play is well written and does pose plenty of personal/political questions to keep you busy. Of course the context in which these camps happened is important, not just to understand the now but also to understand the then. What we take as inevitable is not always so, there was a very strong pro-Nazi undercurrent in the US before - and to a lesser extent even during - the Second World War and a much bigger group who simply wanted nothing to do with problems in Europe. With a few minor changes this might easily have led to permanent neutrality in the conflict for the US and a Nazi Europe for decades or more. Anyone interested in going beyond this play might wish to read "Hitler In Los Angeles" by Steven J Ross. Camp Siegfried was only a part of a much larger effort to indoctrinate and to subvert democracy.

Insofar as the personal relations, clearly the male is a less complex character and is typical of the type who was taken in by the paraphernalia and promises of the Reich and its fellow travellers. He wants to fit into something, he wants to prove he is a man... so procreation and the wish to fight provide simple solutions. For her part the girl wants to be loved, she wants to fit in too, but she sees the difficulties in simply falling unquestioningly into a mould - whether as gossipy teen, mother, "German" or whatever. This conflict in their aims/aspirations is what creates the personal drama which complements the politics of the piece.

Anyway, we pride ourselves - like all generations - as being far superior to what went before and really having a clear vision of the past, present and future. Typical human hubris, I'm afraid. Future generations will laugh at us and despise us as we laugh and despise others who came before. The theatre is the ideal forum to learn empathy and understand others but for many it merely serves to confirm their prejudices and superiority. You can lead a horse to water......

This is interesting! I thought that on the whole the play was quite lenient on antisemitism – they are pretty much Trumpian, MAGA nazis that you would expect pulling out a smartphone and start tweeting from their young republican accounts. The antisemitic aspect of Nazi politcs were discussed rather briefly (and I think the doctor and his family became less clearly Jewish during previews) and they weren't a big part of the protagonists' social and political identity. I actually thought that Wohl willingly glossed over racism/antisemitism to make Him & Her a bit more sympathetic.

 I thought the writing was clever in the way it portrayed the psychology of Nazism and the way that radicalisation works by targeting people's insecurities to draw them into an ideology that promises a sense of belonging, purpose, superiority. More overtly antisemitic characters might have made it easier for the audience to distance themselves. 

>>All credit to the understudy cast, mind, who threw themselves into it with a will, and were technically irreproachable

Did you go to an understudy runthrough or were Luke and Patsy BOTH off, which seems unlikely? I must say, their performances are as fine as anything London has seen all year.

Interesting to hear pledge's impressions of an understudy cast. Patsy Ferran and Luke Thallon were so good, but I thought the play had flaws which are probably more apparent with understudies. One point though, I think the time scale is 2-3 months, not less than a month. But I agree it's a big change of heart/ideology for both, and they are astonishingly articulate teenagers.

Excuse me. I saw this last night. Did I not see Luke and Patsy. No mention anywhere they were off. I booked 2 hours before. Outrageous. I wouldn't have gone had I known.