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Channel Productions Guernsey

Lotty’s War

by Giuliano Crispini

Directed by Iain Davie

Greenwich Playhouse

11th November – 7th December 2008

ay Couzen

A review by Colette Gunn-Graffy for EXTRA! EXTRA!

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What must it have been like, for British people, to live under Nazi occupation? This was the starting point for writer Giuliano Crispini in researching his play Lotty’s War. The question is not hypothetical: on 30 June 1940, the Germans invaded the Channel Island of Guernsey (and over the next few days, the neighbouring Islands as well) and occupied the island until liberation on 9 May 1945.

The central figure in Lotty’s War is Lotty (Katie Howell), who, at the outset of the war, is a spirited Guernsey girl of 17. Her mother and sister having evacuated to the British mainland (advised by the British Government in advance of the German invasion), Lotty keeps house for her father and playfully bosses around her young sweetheart Ben (James Joyce). Then the Germans invade, bombing the harbour and killing Lotty’s father. Within days, her house is commandeered by a German officer, Rolf (Michael Fenner), a man who, underneath the enemy uniform, is charming, civilised and human. Rather taken with the dreamy but stubborn young Lotty, Rolf demands that she stay on in the house as his housekeeper. Essentially a prisoner in her own home, Lotty is initially resistant to forming any sort of relationship with Rolf; over time, however, the two become quite companionable, and eventually romance blossoms.

Spanning nearly five years, the action of the play is episodic in nature. As indicated by the authentic radio news broadcasts played between scenes, the emphasis is on the progression of time and its effect on the characters’ development, particularly Lotty’s. If her romance with Rolf felt slightly forced – perhaps a bit too sudden to be completely convincing – it is because there was simply not enough time for it to be realistically developed in a play of under two hours. After all, more important than the relationship itself are the questions it raises, about friends, enemies, allegiances and rationales. Rolf is more mature, more manly (and gentle as well) than Ben, who is hot-headed and engaged in the rather weak Guernsey resistance force. Yet, Rolf is also part of the invading army responsible for the death of Lotty’s father and the isolation, malnutrition (cut-off from the mainland, the Islanders were dependent on air-dropped rations) and, in some cases, deportation to concentration camps, of her countrymen. To any Islander or Briton, justification for these acts, howsoever eloquently stated, comes across as mad; yet to Rolf, these actions are beyond doubt. Over the five years of occupation, as Lotty evolves from girl to woman, she discovers, among other things, her own morality.

Lotty’s War is fascinating as a semi-historical account of the occupation of Guernsey. Where Crispini’s script is most successful, however, is its depiction of Rolf. Instead of a caricature of the cold and abrupt Nazi officer, Crispini creates – and Michael Fenner wonderfully delivers – a man of great warmth, humour and, clearly, a capacity for love. Thus, the audience can sympathise with Lotty’s dilemma. Though we have a certain soft spot for Ben, we cannot help being charmed by Rolf, though rather against our better judgment. This difficulty of reconciling Rolf, the human, with Rolf, the murderer, is an essential part of the play, and Crispini does not offer Lotty – or the audience – an easy out. We are left only with the affirmation (made again and again throughout history and art) that war and occupation are not so black-and-white as government rhetoric would have us believe; nor are they reconcilable with the human instincts to reach out, to connect and to love.

Tuesday – Saturday @ 7:30 pm, Sunday @ 4 pm

Tickets £12 / £10 concessions

Box Office: 020 8858 9256

 www.galleontheatre.co.uk

Greenwich Playhouse

 189 Greenwich High Road, London SE10 8JA

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