Currently running at Finborough Theatre and receiving very positive reviews, The Passenger is written by Nadya Menuhin, and based on the novel by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz.
“Shot through with Hitchcockian tension, The Passenger is the terrifyingly absurd story of Otto Silbermann, a criminal on the run who hasn’t committed a crime. Directed by multi-award-winning former artistic director of The Young Vic, Tim Supple.
Where: Finborough Theatre, Earl’s Court
When: playing until 15 Mar
Ticket link: https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/the-passenger/
Kristallnacht, Berlin, November 1938. The streets of Germany are an orgy of state-sanctioned violence.
As Nazi storm troopers batter down his door, respected businessman Otto flees his home and finds himself plunged into a new world order, his life dissolved overnight.
Betrayed by family, friends and colleagues, and desperately trying to conceal his Jewish identity, he takes train after train across Germany in a race to escape his homeland that is no longer home…”
I spoke with actor Eric MacLennan, who plays a range of characters in the play, shortly before the first preview.
Could you tell me about The Passenger, the play in which you are appearing at Finborough?
Yes, I play Theo Findler, a German businessman, and lots of other parts as well. We’ve just come to the end of our rehearsal period and moved into the Finborough for technical rehearsals.
It’s been a very exciting project to rehease and going into the space where we’ll be playing it yesterday was very exciting. It’s the first time I’ve been at that theatre and it’s literally a room, a very small space, and that’s great as you want to involve the audience in the action.
There’s nowhere to hide! Very often, you’re thinking how you’re going to project or communicate something, but at the Finborough, people are right beside us. We’re also playing in the round.
Have you read the original novel?
I didn’t know the novel until the project came up. I knew of Tim Supple’s work over the years but it’s the first time I worked with him.
I had a lovely meeting with him, and then I rushed out and got a copy of the novel. I was thinking ‘I hope it’s good’, but it was so much better than I expected. It’s a cliche to say, but it’s a page turner, an exciting thriller.
When the German Nazi party comes and starts smashing Jewish homes, this Jewish German businessman, Otto Silberman, goes on the run and just to become invisible he gets on train after train travelling around Germany, as if he’s just going about his daily work.
As a reader of the novel, you’re on the run with him. It’s very exciting, and then after reading the book, I discovered the tragic story of this very young writer, who sadly died young. You think what a brilliant novel this is, and if only he had lived longer, what other books might he have written?
How does the book come across in this new adaptation for the stage?
Nadya Menuhin has done a very good job in adapting this as a play. As with any novel to a play, it’s quite a drastic editing process, but I I think she’s really captured the essence of it.
It’s written to be performed with five actors: one actor playing the main character (Otto Silberman), and then the rest of us playing multiple characters, maybe five or six characters each.
That’s a really enjoyable thing to do, because you’re working to keep the story moving at the right pace. If you are playing a single character in a play, you might be listening to it begin and then it’s a bit like jumping onto a moving bus.
It’s much harder to join the story midway, whereas in The Passenger, we all come on at the very beginning and actually dress the main character. When you’re there from the beginning, you sense the audience, and it is much easier to gauge how it’s coming across.
Could you talk about the characters you play in The Passenger?
I mentioned Theo Findler. He’s a businessman, and when the Nazi Party rises, he looks for a business opportunity rather than defend his friend.
I also play a Nazi member who is a chess player who is very competitive and plays against Otto, who is very good but also very fearful of being discovered. So there are moments of comedy within a dark subject, as in all extreme situations.
I play a Belgian board guard and a waiter. Also, an undercover cop – someone who’s an older man who seems no threat until he produces his police documents. Then, everyone has a reason to be scared. Finally, a very distressed character in prison. It’s nice to play a range of contrasting characters that serve the story and move the narrative along, The quick costume changes also add a nice challenge!
You mentioned the size of the Finborough’s space. Have you played in those kind of venues before? Do you have a preference of big or small spaces?
That’s a good question. I have enjoyed playing in small spaces such as the old Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. I like playing in the round, somewhere like the Orange Tree or Manchester Royal Exchange, I enjoy small spaces. There’s something very honest about them.
If you think of the traditional prosenium arch, it makes a picture box that is all about illusion. Things are meant to be seen from one perspective within the frame. Of course, life isn’t like that. It’s meant to be seen from many angles, and when you have something to play in the round, it seems more immediate.
In the round, each member of the audience will see a slightly different and unique version of the story, like in real life. A unique perspective. The other thing that’s really interesting from the point of view of playing things in the round is that the audience can look at each other as well. It’s interesting to watch something real happening in front of you with a backdrop of other audience members.
You’re very aware that it’s a live event that people are sharing together. There’s something very satisfying about that in these days where often work is being consumed on screens.
The Passenger runs for about 90 minutes, without interval, doesn’t it?
Yes, sometimes it can feel a bit of an interruption when you have to look for a place to break a story halfway. With this one, it absolutely suits it just to go straight through.
It also means that practically there is a limited amount of time to change your appearance, and you need to find key things you want to present to honour the story and guide the audience.
The piece seems to have an echo of absurdist writers like Kafka and Ionesco. Is that something you explored at all in rehearsal?
It’s sort of there, you feel resonances of things where Otto Silberman comes up against the brick wall of stupid bureaucracy. It’s not something that we’ve particularly set to highlight because I think in a way we want to honour the original novel rather than saying it resembles something else.
This is a unique piece of work with its own style. It’s very fast-paced and exciting, with momentum to it as this man gets on and off trains. You can sense this is a story that has a rhythm to it.
Tim Supple is a very interesting director to tackle somthing like this.
He’s a brilliant director. I’ve really enjoyed working with him and he’s very generous, encouraging everyone to have space to speak in the room. It’s lovely when lots of ideas can be shared.
We’ve got a very good associate director and a wonderful creative team. Great design, a wonderful stage management, and placements from East 15 School and Wimbledon School of Art. We’ve been very lucky.
You mentioned the immediacy of live performance. What do you think of livestreams and digital captures of stage work?
Of course technology is wonderful. In the pandemic there was an opportunity to start to access theatre this way, and for actors it was a lifeline at the time. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed starting to get access into these live events again.
I don’t think I’ve done anything with a live feed on it, but I imagine that would be terrifying! You’re suddenly aware of the fact that there’s a lot more people watching it . For me, if there’s a choice, it’s always better to be live in the room.
But I see that for many reasons, people can get access to something you haven’t got the money to see. It’s also nice to have a record of something that is ephemeral in nature and usually remembered just by posters. That’s useful for historians and students.
Was there anything else you want to add about The Passenger?
Come and see it!
Production photo by Steve Gregson