I’m becoming a fan of Simon Reade. Following his faultless production of Private Peaceful at the Tobacco Factory earlier this year he brings us another Morpurgo perspective on the human cost of war, this time set in the WWII Dresden of 1945. This crystalline adaption from the Northcott Theatre puts a human and moving face on ‘the enemy’. Now ‘the enemy’ in this case is ‘us’ and ‘them’ seen from both sides of the conflict and the story uses the imaginative conceit of a rescued elephant from Dresden zoo whose slow, kindly bulk stands as a metaphor for what has been destroyed. Like Private Peaceful, this story is about the lives that lie behind the literal brutalities of war, using here a sixteen year old German girl and her mother who have been made refugees following the Allied air raid on Dresden and the resulting firestorm which all but destroyed the ancient city and its inhabitants. It is a ‘road’ story about the escape from the madness of war and the madness of Nazism – an escape from, ’the sound of people in despair.’

Reade winnows out the emotional and narrative core of Morpurgo’s original allowing the audience to be drawn in to the story. In Alison Reid he has the perfect combination of experience and talent to bring the enterprise to life. Like a ball of knots waiting to be unpicked in order to reveal some inner goodness she goes about her task with an eager effulgence. Her storytelling is marked by a free and expressive physicality as she takes in her stride; mother, daughter, father, uncle, farmer, airman, soldier, countess and elephant as recalled by the sixty year old storyteller. Like a great cartoonist she manages to draw each character with a few deft touches – a change of accent, a shift in weight, a change of pace, all sure-footed and fluid.

There is an apt simplicity to Max Johns’ circus ring set, which is only fully appreciated in the felicitous twist as the story comes, as it were, full circle. Jason Barnes’ sound plot adds a further texture to the action and together with Matthew Graham’s structural and atmospheric lighting helps to enrich the whole, helping actor and audience to travel through the time and space which delineates the story.

This is masterful storytelling by all concerned and a gem of a standout performance of the Brewery’s year. ★★★★☆ Graham Wyles   6/11/14