Review: Dresden, KXT, Kings Cross

Yalin Ozuclik is Adolf In Dresden. Photo: Clare Hawley

“Music is a thing we turn to when we abandon the kingdom of reason”

Richard Wagner’s music (somewhat unluckily for the composer) is inextricably bound with Hitler and the Third Reich, the Fuhrer idolising Wagner’s work and eventually using it to open his rallies.

What Wagner would have made of that we can never know but Justin Fleming’s new play takes the lives of these two men, who lived almost a century apart, and imagines each revolving around the other like a double helix. It’s a clever idea and one that, in this production, is totally absorbing thanks in no small part to Jeremy Water’s wonderful Wagner and Yalin Ozucelik’s equally believable Hitler.

Jeremy Waters is a magnificent Wagner in Dresden. Photo: Clare Hawley

The play opens with Wagner, struggling to have his music recognised. We see the shambling composer in shabby contrast to the rich and prosperous (and Jewish) Meyerbeer (Thomas Campbell) and the first hints of anti-Semitism are allowed in by Fleming. Shortly afterwards, with Wagner still onstage, we move forward a few decades and see an adolescent Hitler in raptures at a performance of the composer’s Rienzi.

Why Dresden? It’s where Rienzi premiered in 1842 and it’s the city the Allies flatted in 1945, months before Hitler’s downfall.

Hearing and seeing Rienzi is the defining moment for teenaged Adolf. Not only is Wagner’s Rienzi a man destined to lead his people out of servitude, but he is a conquering hero. The music is also compelling, and Hitler is hooked. He has found a role model. (“Only on the great stage can we live for 1000 years, I will upstage the great Wagner himself.”) The rousing Overture from Rienzi would open Hitler’s rallies in times to come.

The themes of power and passion (untampered by love) intertwine and are examined as robustly as Wagner’s music in this fast-paced, power-packed 75-minute work. We watch these two lives unfold separately, two men obsessed but by very different ideals. We wonder what would have happened if Wagner and Hitler had been contemporaries? History can tell us about both men but Wagner, whatever his faults, was not the monster Hitler was. We don’t know how he would have reacted, but it’s fascinating to conjecture.

Dorje Swallow plays multiple roles in Dresden.Photo: Jasmin Simmons

In Dresden, we get to see some of Wagner’s trials and tribulations: his early lack of success; his dealings with the stubborn and equally egotistic conductor Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (a wonderful cameo by Dorje Swallow who plays multiple roles); and his inability to curb the flamboyant behaviour of tenor Josef Tichatsheck (one of Thomas Campbell’s scene stealing moments). Renee Lim makes what she can of being Cosima Wagner, whose love apparently saw Wagner through. We don’t really know much else about her from Dresden.

Suzanne Millar directs, deftly and assuredly, and Patrick Howe designed the set, which is pretty much a star in itself, with its sunken floor, and black and white tiles, shown up to advantage by Benjamin Brockman’s lighting.

BAKEHOUSE Theatre Company is 10 years old this year. It began in 2008 with a Justin Fleming work and, in a neat turn of events, celebrates its anniversary with a world premiere by Fleming. Couldn’t ask for better really!

As for Wagner, I felt rather sorry for him at the end. Was it all his fault? Would he have stopped Hitler using his music? We’ll never now. Could he have stopped it anyway? Once the music is out there, it’s up for grabs, as in the present day as The Rolling Stones know only too well. They aren’t thrilled about D Trump using their songs for his presidential rallies.

Dresden, by Justin Fleming, is at KXT, Kings Cross until June 30.