King’s Head Theatre 15-30 January. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
“Could Adolf come to the diary room?” – Best housemate ever!
After receiving a second rejection letter from university, Adolf tries to kill himself, but wakes up in a strange place to find a homosexual in leopard skin top and pink shorts singing Cilla Black songs at him. That goes down well.
Hew Rous-Eyre and Max Elton’s play is a fantastic and timely satire demonstrating how easily a charismatic leader can manipulate isolated, ill-informed and disenfranchised people into accepting doctrine and carrying out acts of cruelty on certain parts of society.
The housemates are worrying that they are boring, and Adolf’s arrival (they have never heard of him) brings great excitement. Inside the house are Felix – gay, upbeat and always glugging red wine; M-Cat – eager to please and making Ali G look credible; Lucy – basically Katy Hopkins; Charlie – left wing and femi-gender (don’t ask!) and Rachel – quiet, motherly… and Jewish.
Watching Hitler playing ridiculous games and taking part in team tasks (he calls his team the Ubermenschen!) is a highlight – Felix’s description and impression of Gandalf, and Adolf’s frustration when his team haven’t heard of Frederick the Great are brilliant moments. On winning a task, Adolf’s luxury item request is better cleaning equipment – this is one meticulous man.
The insanity of the situation enables the audience to laugh as Adolf begins to rant about Rachel. (Stephen Chance is fantastic mimicking the familiar gestures and facial expressions, and also manages to give Hitler’s childishly defiant, snooty little comments a certain amount of warmth.) More sinisterly, he gently encourages the housemates to discuss and blame her for perceived injustices.
The constant animal metaphors and allegories Adolf spits at his bewildered housemates, among more familiar soundbites work their magic, and Adolf makes it through to the final three, alongside Charlie and Felix – “one of the most entertaining sub-humans I’ve ever met”!
This is a play full of belly laughs and surreal moments. The memory of Adolf Hitler sitting in the diary room chair with Felix in tight Tshirt and lip print shorts sitting on his lap will haunt me for months, along with the final, chilling image that brought reality crashing down on the audience.
Thought-provoking, funny and extremely relevant, this is a play you need to see.