It’s fair to say that most people know when the Second World War started, but perhaps not so many are aware of the events that actually started the war.
Canned Goods is a true story, set in 1939, about a little known, but pivotal moment, in history when Hitler devised a plan to justify the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Three men are arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis. A Jewish teacher, a Roman Catholic farmer, and a German janitor, all of whom seem to have nothing in common. So why are they being kept incarcerated? And even more bizarre, why is there is an order in place that they must be well fed and must not be harmed. What is going on?
This gripping tale, written by American playwright Eric Kahn, is both revelatory and stunning as the audience discovers how these three men are to be used to further Hitler’s hunger for war.
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough- it will be believed,” is the thinking behind Hitler’s plot to keep the UK from entering into a World War. But where do the three men fit in?
Dan Parr plays the part of Ruthless SS Major Naujocks with chilling accuracy. The prisoners are played by Charlie Archer – himself a descendant of German Holocaust victims and survivors – as the Jewish Birnbaum, Tom Wells the farmer Honiok, and Roman Polonski the Christian German janitor Kruger.
The 90-minute-long play opens with SS Major Naujocks, the Nazi who so proudly proclaimed “I am the man who started the war”, sitting centre stage. Illuminated by a powerful spotlight his eerie presence seems to fill the theatre. His uniform is so menacing, and arrogance emanates from every pore. The audience is filled with a dread for what is to become of his innocent victims.
Directed by Charlotte Cohn with wonderful lighting from Ryan Joseph Stafford, the plot unfolds through the course of 90 minutes with the play reaching a stunning, beautifully staged, climax.
“My intention in writing Canned Goods was to consider how demagogues consistently employ violence and lies to choke individual thoughts and liberal humanism,” explains Kahn. “Sadly, eight five years after Hitler used his prisoners, his canned goods, in an attempt to placate his enemies with lies, we find ourselves faced again with the normalisation of autocracy and the proliferation of false facts.
“Birnbaum says that ‘The fire of hatred has burned here long before Hitler. And that hatred will continue to burn long after he is gone.’ That sums things up for me.”
Canned Goods is at Southwark Playhouse until 8 February. southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
