It is both logical and surprising that the same man, who adapted Dickens’ ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ with great success, brings this impressive and grand stage production to life.
Albert Speer (1905 –1981) was Hitler’s favourite architect, master builder and later on, his War Minister. During the Nürnberg Trials, he succeeded in convincing the judge that he was ignorant of the monstrosities that had taken place around him and therefore he got away with 20 years imprisonment in Spandau, where he wrote his memoirs. Speer’s air of trustworthiness, incredible intelligence as well as his relation to Hitler, has fostered many interpretations of his true character.
Edgar’s play is based on Gitta Sereny’s sensational biography, ‘Albert Speer; His Battle With Truth’ (1995). He has simply taken the subtitle and turned it into the dramatic nerve and drive in the play. So one of its main questions is what went on in the mind of this highly intelligent man, who is portrayed neither as likeable nor unpleasant but more as a soul that seeks truth and atonement.
The play revolves around the Nürnberg Trials in 1946, though it also travels in time and place; Berlin, the occupied France, the East frontier, Hitler’s bunker, the Spandau Prison and post war Germany.
Speer’s relationship with Hitler was rather ambivalent, as he was either called the ‘The Good Nazi’ or ‘Hitler’s unfortunate love’. So in Edgar’s play one follows his fascinating and controversial fight between truth and his own integrity as well as his give-and-take relationship with Hitler. Lastly, it touches on the recognition he received from Hitler and how that made up for the lost father figure that he had always mourned.
Undoubtedly, this play with such longevity is a classic that will fascinate and challenge a large audience in large theatres all over.
