Kindertransport Review- First Draft

Kindertransport, although about the transportation of Jewish children from the hellish Nazi Germany, focuses strongly on the versatile yet complex relationships between mothers and daughters.

The events in Germany and Manchester during both 1938 and later in 1983, via a split screen, are done simultaneously on stage as we see Eva leaving her mother in Germany (aged 9) and being forced to travel to England for safety of the Nazi's. Interwoven with this story is one of Faith leaving home, and subsequently her mother Evelyn, for University, many years later, in rural England. Like many plays, Kindertransport reveals more and more the harder you look at it. It not only tells a moving story extremely well, but also affects many audience members personally as it draws on their own life experiences.

The use of foreshadowing in the plot of Kindertransport is something portrayed well by the cast of the play. This technique is used amongst many others in order to evoke the play's central concern: how the past haunts the present. The key props on set, consisting of a small house (being the actual set), a suitcase and old photographs, foreshadow the jagged of the fragments of Eva’s memories.

The set, and the use of it, during the performance was fairly intricate. The way one set managed to transport the audience from the bare bone of a house in Germany, 1931, to the attic of a modern family's house in England with just where the performing actors were on stage and how they interacted with different parts of the set is truly marvellous.

Throughout the set alone, another layer of tension was added to the tense atmosphere already created by the narrative and the characters it featured. The use of the digital screen, portraying clouds that reflected the emotions on stage, with the likes of a calm or stormy scene depending on which part of the plot we were watching. The use of the weather was a way to add realism to the play as well as well as guiding the audience. This screen, used in the background, was a way to almost tell the audience how to interpret and how to feel about different characters and scenarios. Whilst watching what was happening on stage, members of the audience had their moods tampered so that their opinions mirrored those of the characters on stage.

The use of a split screen stage was an excellent way to show the two periods in time that our characters are from whilst also allowing the overlap in which the division was broken and the characters from the two times crossed over in some way or another. The use of the fostering mother, in the earlier years, and the Nan, in the later ones, crossing over this boundary was a way of writing the two stories as one. The use of this one character, in both times, enabled the audience to understand the complex plot to a higher extent.

In terms of the technological side of things,(disregarding the back- screen as I've discussed this previously) these were yet another component that helped to result in the success of the play. The filters on the lighting were there to set the mood for each different scene, creating a sense of warmth, with soft, yellow lighting and a sense of sadness for others, with the use of harsh and exposing lighting. The use of darkness, when the fearful character of the Ratcatcher was on stage, caused his character to strike even more fear into the hearts on the audience. Subsequently, the use of total light blackouts to express, what I think are the character of Eva/ Evelyn's panic attacks have a panicky effect on the audience.

The sound affects throughout the play are ensured to be realistic and are kept very minimal in order to emphasis this. The use of a wooden stage allows the harsh, echoing footsteps created on stage to have their own affect, hugely depending at which point of the narrative we're focusing on. The use of simple yet contrasting music is something which emphasis the mood the scene is setting, be it the distant flute based music to show reflection or the harsh pitchy music to add tension and fear.

Come the end of the play, I was left with more and more unanswered questions. The plotlines draw to a close with what appear to be ‘happy endings’(for most) but in the last few seconds the reoccurring character of the ‘Rat Catcher’, a fairy-tale character of nightmares, makes an appearance throwing all out predictions to the end off. As a result of this I was left wondering, what exactly had happened? And what could possibly happen next for these characters? Overall, I found Kindertransport to be an emotional yet complex play. Giving us a lot of information but also keeping a lot back was something it did well and as a result, it left a lot up to the imagination (linking with the fairy-tale nature of the play itself.) It offers a very personal perspective on the most destructive war in history and is very movingly told.