Review of David Tennant in 'Good'

We attended the NFT play 'Good' with David Tennant. 

I thought it was both fascinating and revolting in equal measure (!) 

It was a chilling yet brilliant study of the corruption of Germany by the Nazis, with a stealthy creeping backdrop. The absorbed Professor (Halder?) seemed to have other things closer to the foreground, with his poor demented Mother and then the rather typical mid-life crisis of a man with a spare woman/wife. That he could betray his best Jewish friend Maurice so thoroughly and convince himself that he was acting correctly just added to the tension.

I didn't know anything about CP Taylor until this show, but seeing him and watching his own intensity of movement illustrated someone with a lot going on inside. I said I found the first half constructed like a complex mechanical clock.

For me, it was a masterclass in the subconscious, with Taylor editing all the individual tracks together, including 4th wall breaks when needed.

The casting (Tennant and the woman - Sharon Small) was excellent and the hallucinations of the story drifting through characters were difficult to pull off yet well executed. The lighting brought a Riefenstahl drama to the bunker where the play appeared to be set. Stripes of red lights etc (Triumph of the Will etc.).

I thought, even from the outset, that the set proposed the inside of gas chambers, but maybe I was wrong about that. What was plain though was the incremental matter-of-factness of the march toward the terrible Holocaust. Tennant's character didn't believe in anything by the end. Just what was good for himself.