Farm Hall

Playwright Katharine Moar has plucked a little-known true story from the later stages of the Second World War and created a short but thought-provoking enquiry into the race for supremacy with the making of the Atomic Bomb.

Six of Germanies top scientists, whether they are factually the best, or just in their own sealed community of atomic science, are being held in a large, dilapidated country house in England. We see them first badly acting/reading out scenes from Blythe Spirit in attempt to stave off the boredom and to understand better the English way. Through their frustrated bickering we begin to work out the hierarchy and individual ways of coping with incarceration. This provides much humour as well as and underlying concern for their own futures and what they were tasked with achieving in Germany.

This all comes to a head when they discover the that it is the Americans that have succeeded in created the first atomic bomb and tested it on Hiroshima. with the bomb’s terrifying destructive power the play then moves on to the repercussions this causes not only to their esteem but the ‘what if’ scenario if them and Hitler that had been the first.

This is where the play and their discussions become most effective All six performances are powerfully real and there are some interesting dynamics between the younger eager scientists Weizsaker (Daniel Boyd) and Bagge (Archie Backhouse) who find their incarceration frustrating and their worries about their personal futures more real.
Then there are the keen verbal battles between Diebner (Julius D’Silva) and Heisenberg (Alan Cox) that provides much of the play’s impetus. Heisenberg, being the key scientist in their development of the bomb, it is him that comes under most pressure to reveal if he could have succeeded given more money and better resources. Both performances are stand-out in the coldness of their moral attitudes in favour of a their own worth. Only Hann (Forbes Masson) is wracked with guilt when he is faced with the truth that his discovery of nuclear fission was brought about the devastating death toll in Japan and an uncertain atomic future. It is only in his conversation with fellow colleague, and father figure to the group, Von Laue (David Yelland) that he becomes more accepting.

This is a play with much promise that is however never fully realised. With most of the major incidents happening either before or somewhere else they can only ever respond and discuss rather than push the drama itself, but as an interesting historical event it has a lot to offer. In director Stephen Unwin’s hands, the static nature of the play is overcome with lovely, nuanced scenes and Ben Ormerod’s lighting design adds shadows and atmospheres that bring the war torn set to life.

Farm Hall makes you consider not only ‘what if’ but the dangerous nature of science when it is taken and used for military or political reasons, and for that reason alone is a play worth a visit.