Review: Good at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London

I’ve just come back from a theatrical weekend in London, and the two shows we saw could not have been more different. The weekend began on Friday night with a performance of Good by C.P. Taylor at the Harold Pinter Theatre (which also hosted Prima Facie earlier this year.)

Good was first performed 1981 and is regarded as one of the most important pieces of theatre about the Holocaust written in English. The current West End revival of Good stars the inimitable David Tennant as John Halder, accompanied by Elliot Levey as Maurice and others, and Sharon Small as Helen, Anne, and others.

What’s it about?

(Note: review may contain plot spoilers)

Germany, 1933. John Halder is a literature professor who thinks of himself as a “good” man, devoted to his wife, children, and ailing mother. Beneath this exterior, however, lurks something more sinister. He has written a pro-euthanasia novel, he happily abandons his family for a young student, and when his best friend Maurice - a Jewish psychiatrist - expresses his fears about the rise of antisemitism in Germany, Halder dismisses them and insists that the “anti-Jewish rubbish” will soon pass. Halder is also strangely detached from the world around him, hearing music in his head during particularly stressful or significant moments.

So how does a man like John Halder come to be not only a member of the Nazi party, but part of the upper echelons of the SS? Good is the chilling depiction of an ordinary man’s descent into some of the worst evil in human history.

Any content notes?

The core theme is the rise of Nazism and the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust, and the play covers numerous Nazi atrocities including the concentration camps, Kristallnacht, involuntary euthanasia, rape, mutilation, and book burning.

One section in Act II uses a lot of loud noises and heavy bass sounds.

Reviewers have been asked not to reveal details of the final fifteen minutes of the play, which I’m happy to abide by here, but suffice to say that the ending is the most difficult part to watch.

There is a lot of swearing in the script, most notably many uses of “f*ck” and “c**t”. This is absolutely not a play for children. Surprisingly, the promoter’s official guidance is that it is suitable for ages 12+.

Good: My Review

I have to start by saying that this is probably the single most difficult play I’ve ever watched. Its unflinching look at how people can be radicalised to evil is nothing short of deeply, deeply disturbing.

David Tennant is no stranger to playing villains, from the charming mind controller Kilgrave in Jessica Jones to the Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. in the Harry Potter franchise. But John Halder is something altogether different and far more terrifying. The horror of Halder lies in his ordinariness, in his ability to blend in with the world around him, in the fact that any of us could know him. He’s not a supervillain or a dark wizard, but a man who could be a friend or a family member or a colleague.

David Tennant (front) and Elliot Levey in Good. Official production photo © Johan Persson.

Good is a three-hander most of the way through, with Tennant, Levey and Small on stage almost constantly, watching the action from the sidelines when they are not directly participating in it. Tennant is at his absolute best in Good, giving us an outwardly affable man with a moral void at his core who is driven primarily by self-interest, vanity, and the desire for an easy life.

Levey is wonderful as Maurice, a highly intelligent and perceptive man who is far more loyal and forgiving to Halder than the latter deserves. His quiet desperation, as he begs Halder to help him and his family get safely out of Germany, is breathtaking.

Small does a stellar job as the various female characters (who are, as other reviewers have pointed out, quite thinly written in places). Relying on nothing but her voice and body language, she switches with skill and lightning speed from an old woman with dementia to a needy and distracted wife to a young infatuated student, and back again.

David Tennant and Sharon Small in Good. Official production photo © Johan Persson.

Music plays a key role in Good. “The bands came in 1933",” Halder tells us in his opening speech, referring to the music he hears that punctuates his life and drowns out the things he doesn’t want to think about too hard. Sound Designer Tom Gibbons and Musical Arranger/Composer Will Stuart create an atmospheric soundscape that at times invites us into Halder’s mind, and at others pans out to underscore the reality of exactly what he is playing a willing role in perpetrating.

Vicki Mortimer’s set is all sharp lines and stark, cold colours, minimalistic in nature to allow the actors’ skills to shine and giving the sense of a prison cell or a bunker. The set’s stripped back look makes it all the more shocking and jarring when two hatches open, one dropping a pile of books onto the stage and the other revealing a fire into which those books will, inevitably, be thrown.

Elliot Levey in Good. Official production photo © Johan Persson.

Good is layered, complex, powerful, challenging, and enraging. I left the theatre filled with a mixed bag of emotions, with helplessness and rage front and centre. And any small imperfections that may be found in the script or staging aside, that is the power of truly brilliant theatre.

I don’t want to talk about how relevant this play still is, or how easy it is to understand why it’s been revived in 2022, but I don’t think I can finish this review without doing so. I hope that this performance is recorded and broadcast or streamed, because it should be seen so much more widely than by twelve weeks’ worth of London theatregoers and dedicated Tennant fans.

Good might not be the play that we want right now, but I fear it is the play that we need.

Where to get tickets

Good runs until 24 December 2023 and tickets are available from Ambassador Theatre Group Tickets or reputable London theatre vendors. Many performances are now sold out, so get tickets ASAP if you want to see it.