25 February 2016
The Patriotic Traitor
The Park Theatre
reviewed by Adam McCormack
From “Yes, Minister” to “Non, Marshal”. Every so often you see a play that captivates you from the outset and you just know that is will be a great success. This will usually be a play that has been revived, for very good reason, so it is a great privilege to witness a brand new work which has triumph written all over it. The stories of Marshal Petain and Charles De Gaulle may be little known to a modern British audience, but told here they say much about the history of France in the twentieth century, and more strikingly, the relationship between an old soldier and his young idealistic protégée.
Marshall Petain (Tom Conti), the hero of Verdun 1916, is on trial as a traitor following the end of the Second World War, where he had been the leader of the Vichy government and seemingly very sympathetic to the Nazis. The new leader of France, Charles De Gaulle (Lawrence Fox) has the ultimate veto over what will happen to Petain if found guilty. However, Petain and De Gaulle go back a long way, to a time before the first war, when they became great friends – to the extent that Petain was godfather to De Gaulle’s first child. Yet by the time of the second war they had fallen out, and Petain went as far as to sign De Gaulle’s death warrant while the latter led the Free French from London. Petain’s approach to battle, which riles the old guard in the first war by advocating defensive tactics to allow the enemy to exhaust itself, works very well in 1916, but in 1940 is seen as being collaborative. Was his willingness for an armistice with Germany really a way of saving French lives from a battle that could not be won at that time, or was it a means by which Petain could achieve an objective of governing his country? All such questions are raised with great intelligence and humour in this production, and we learn a great deal while being left with sympathy for both sides of the French divide.
Jonathan Lynn’s dialogue manages to deliver the story with the wit that made Yes Minister so compelling, but without losing any gravitas from such an important period of French history (the only gripe I had was a reference to lateral thinking, a term coined as late as 1967 by Edward de Bono). His De Gaulle is totally lacking in humility but, while he professes to have no sense of humour, his wit is as dry as it comes. Petain is played as a man whose faculties at times seem to be fading, but an underlying man of iron will and firm conviction is never far from the surface. Fox and Conti are excellent, and are more than ably supported by a small cast who manage to cover a multitude of roles across senior generals and politicians. This is a play that deserves to be a great success and a transfer to the West End surely beckons. The play is both written and directed by Jonathan Lynn and runs at the Park Theatre, Finsbury Park until 19th March. Don’t miss it.*****
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