Theatre Alba

JOSEF
The Stage 24 August 2000
Josef
If you make the well trodden journey from the Assembly Rooms to the Pleasance, the chances are you will walk post this modest theatre without noticing it. You would be missing out on this excellent play if you did - it is easily as good as much of the drama in those larger well established venues.
The action is set mainly in Scotland during the early eighties, where the elderly character of the title is being cross-examined by two policemen for a seemingly innocuous case of shoplifting. Ross, though unravels a haunting and tightly constructed story that flashes back to Auschwitz and the Second World War 40 years previously.

As Charles Nowosielski's production progresses these two narrative threads reveal related concerns about power, memory and the preservation of historical truths, constantly shifting out of the wider and close-up picture.
It is superbly realised, with solid performances from Jeffrey Daunton, Douglas Russell and David Murray. Combining taut interrogation scenes, dream sequences and multimedia visuals this is theatre that maximises the possibilities of its craft.

Andrew Aldridge