Loring Mandel's 'Conspiracy' and how my vision came to life... just not by me.

Throughout my life I have been passionate about several things but I would say my two biggest are history and theatre. Growing up I was obsessed with WWII, not in a weird way, and watched hundreds of programmes about the evil that happened during that war and the people involved. It fascinated me and the main reason was because it throws up so many uncomfortable questions about the nature of humanity. Even today I cannot fathom what caused an entire section of Europe to ignore and dismiss the plight of certain sections of society or to justify them. I couldn't understand when younger the powerful weapon of fear and what it could do to nations and to the world. It is my lack of understanding and my desire to reconcile the facts with what I would do in that situation that dragged me back again and again to programmes about the Nazi's and the atrocities that were committed during those six years. When I reached University I was given the opportunity to play several characters in 'Fear and Misery of the Third Reich' a play by Bertolt Brecht which studies the culture of fear and the changing of the German society from within during the 1930s. It is a chilling play which I have never forgotten. I made it my mission to research as much as possible in the rehearsal period of the play, as an actor I make it my own personal quest to learn all I can regarding my character and setting, and part of what I wanted to look at was other plays/films about the Nazi regime and how they approached the stories. So I made a list including films such as 'Cabaret' and 'Bent', both of which I had previously seen and the latter being a play I never wish to witness again due to its content, then I looked into other pieces such as 'Hitler: Rise of Evil' before coming across Loring Mandel's wonderful work 'Conspiracy'.

'Conspiracy' is a dramatisation of the Wannsee Conference, the meeting of Nazi officials and beauracrats who put together the plan of how to exterminate the jews. It was written by Loring Mandel who took the minutes of the meeting, all of which were supposed to have been destroyed, and wove this script together. It is severely chilling and incredibly effective, if you have not seen it before please watch the following clip.

('Conspiracy' was written by Loring Mandel and produced by the BBC and HBO in 2001. It is distributed by HBO and its copyright belongs to those mentioned)

That is a real conversation that actually happened. The men on that day in that room applauded the idea of disposing of 60,000 people a day. It sickened me, not the fact that it happened as we know historically it did, the fact that these men sat around and allowed these horrific things to be said. The idea that fear drove them to such hatred, that the cost of a human life meant nothing to these people and it hit me in a way that I didn't expect. It made the whole situation seem more real and to hear this group of men discuss the way that their goverment would commit genocide and justify it was shocking.

After leaving University the film 'Conspiracy' stayed with me and I began to want to work towards a theatrical production of it. It struck me that it was a fantastic stage play, a sort of Nazi 12 angry men, and that it would be an excellent piece for students of WWII and the holocaust to see. In 2009 I tried finding out how to get hold of the script for the piece. I tried all the usual online film script websites and forums but found nothing. I then did a lot of research on the writer Loring Mandel and found out his agents information. I contacted his agent in LA several times and got no replies, I didn't really expect to as after all I was just some young actor from the UK wanting to put on a play. I didn't give up though, I kept researching Mandel and came across a contact which may or may not have been his family and I thought 'what the heck' so I emailed this contact and it was Mandel's family. They were incredibly nice and helpful and put me in touch with Loring. I got into contact with him and explained how much I loved his film and what I wanted to do with the play if it was available to be performed, rumours had been rife since 2001 that he was going to stage a production in NY, and that I would be using it as an educational tool. I didn't get anywhere with my enquiries but Loring Mandel and the rest of the Mandel family treated me so nicely I just notched it up as a failure that although disappointing was not a dead loss as I got to email someone I greatly admired. I would like to thank the Mandel family again for their help and politeness.

I hadn't given up on one day seeing 'Conspiracy' as a stage play as after all it was a popular film and on numerous occaisions Mandel himself said he wanted to do it. Well in 2010 a theatre company in Michigan managed to get the rights from Mandel to perform the play, the story about the process can be found at this link here, and in November 2011 it was performed for the very first time at the Riverwalk Theatre in Lansing Michigan. I am glad to hear it finally got performed and I hope the power of the piece came through. Sometimes its annoying when you know something would be a good play or production and for whatever reasons you do not get to accomplish what you want but knowing that it has now been performed and has been realised makes me happy. Plus who knows maybe one day the UK premiere of this wonderful play will be a FPTheatre Productions event directed by Christopher Squire... we can hope and plan... now where is that email address?

Zach Braff on BBC Breakfast this Morning

(Photo courtesy of http://www.zachbraff.com/)

So this morning on BBC Breakfast Zach Braff, of Scrubs fame, appeared to promote his latest venture a play in the West End. The play is titled 'All New People' and was written by Braff himself. It opens in London on the 22nd of February at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in St Martins Lane.

The play was developed by the Off Broadway Theatre Company 2ST aka Second Stage Company a company that began in the late 70's giving plays that may not have been successful the first time around a second chance on a New York stage. Braff returned to the stage in 2010 after 8 years away in the play Trust by Paul Weitz and it was this link and this company that inspired him to write his own work. He did not appear in the New York version but agreed to play the lead role in a transfer from America to the West End saying that it was a dream of his to perform in London. Zach Braff is well known for being the zany J.D in TV's Scrubs but is also an acclaimed film writer whose 2004 directorial debut Garden State was an Indie Film hit both financially and critically. He has moved away from Scrubs slightly in the past few years becoming more of a guest character and has been working towards more film directing and writing as evidenced by his latest project 'Open Heart' a remake of a Danish thriller and an original film written by himself called 'Swingles'.

The fact is Braff is a very talented actor, he is perhaps the best actor around today at juggling comedy and pathos equally. His play is centred around a depressed young man and is a comedy so he is in a perfect position he cannot really lose. Is Braff playing to type? Yes. Is that a bad thing? No. I always feel if someone is good at one genre and people are willing to pay to watch them do that one thing then by all means do it. Braff is taking the opportunity to tour his play internationally and to perform in it himself, not many American television stars or directors would take such a risk. The good thing is this play thanks to Braff has a built in audience due to the success and popularity in this country of Scrubs especially with the teenagers who watch E4. Scrubs has taken over the position in this country enjoyed by Friends for over 10 years and has become the teenage sitcom so this show will definitely shift some tickets. Normally I would rag on American actors coming over here to perform in a play as a gimmick but this time I think that would be unfair, it is a new piece of work which was well received in New York and with its sitcom style jokes and layout I think this will be an unchallenging piece of theatre that could engage young adults and teenagers without having to be a Musical. If only there were more shows like this for younger people to see, the point is sometimes we want to see something we're familiar with and currently the British young person is at a point where the American sitcom is a very accessible form of media and they understand it incredibly well. The old fashioned hard hitting drama isn't pulling in a massive amount of punters to the theatre so why not try the sitcom route, why not try writing a sitcom play for a change set here in the UK. This show could be incredibly popular and I am wishing I had tickets to see the performance just to see how the sitcom style works in a live theatre environment. Zach Braff will be good I am certain of it and he seems very enthusiastic about the entire enterprise and as the show will be hitting Glasgow and Manchester first it really seems as if its not about the money for this Hollywood star. If you liked 'Garden State' and 'Scrubs' I reckon you can't really go wrong buying tickets for this show. 

For ticket information for the Glasgow and Manchester runs please click on the relevent cities name.

For ticket information regarding the West End run please click here.

First Jude... Now Sienna Miller... but its not good news

Oh deary me, things are not so great for Sienna Miller the latest Brit to hit Broadway. Performing 'After Miss Julie' a couple of theatres down from former boyfriend Jude Law and fellow Brit Actor Daniel Craig everything could have been set for a British domination of the American stage that would have proved that once again England is setting the acting standard, alas it was not to be. Whilst Johnny Lee Miller is getting good solid reviews for his part in the production the same cannot be said of Sienna. Critics have called her 'Wooly' in this country being kind to a woman who is no veteran of the stage but in America they have savaged her. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal said:

"A model turned second-tier movie star, all she does is stalk around the stage striking vampy poses. She has no more business playing a classic stage role than I have posing for the cover of Vogue."

High praise indeed but not as high as the praise the New York Times gave her, critic Ben Brantley says:

"If Julie is written as clashing chords of conflicted impulses, Ms Miller plays them like a novice at a piano, plunking down each note loudly and individually."

So poor Sienna Miller, she still has till the 6th of December in the show, providing it doesn't get shut first, and I get the feeling more American criticism is on its way.