A well written show with sparkling dialogue and some strong performances. You will leave entertained, and potentially knowing just a bit more about nuclear physics
Operation Epsilon tells the story of a group of German scientists who were sequestered in an English manor house near the end of WW2 and spied on by the British to see how close they were to creating an atomic bomb. Directed by Andy Samberg and written by Alan Brody, this play shines a light on a little-known part of history, and uses real life transcripts of the conversations these scientists had, plus a whole lot of creative license, to make an interesting and thought-provoking show.
The best part about this play is its script. It is an awful lot of men standing in a room and talking to each other, but the dialogue shines and keeps you engaged throughout. I was genuinely surprised once we reached the interval as I was so invested in what was happening that I had not noticed how much time had passed. One part of the script that did not quite work for me was an apology that one character gives in the final moments of the play. This seemed to come out of nowhere and did not ring true, but other than that one fleeting moment, I was enthralled.
The morality around creation and discovery is a key theme throughout the play. Set in 1945, first premiering in 2013, and still entirely relevant and poignant today in 2023. The horrors of the holocaust and of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan linger in the background, give these discussions around what is right to do in the fact of tyranny and how objectivity in such situations is near impossible real weight and pushes them forward not just as philosophical discussions, but as important considerations as to the actions you should take. It is also quite funny. The humour is definitely needed and never threatens to overtake the serious discussions, but rather helps to elevate them, and also keep the audience from succumbing to a theatre induced depression.
This is a large cast of 11 men, all of whom gave perfectly adequate performances, but the 2 standouts for me where Nicholas Armfield, who played Doctor Horst Korsching brilliantly and used every moment and line that he had in the script to great effect, and Matthew Duckett as Doctor Erich Bagge, who was able to portray the comedy and underlying narcissism of the character very well. This script is pacey by nature, and there were a few stumbles from some of the cast which interrupted the flow at moments, but in general this was not enough to cause any great disruption, and ultimately none of the performances I think can be described as poor. Although I will note that there was a tendency to revert to shouting during some moments, which I think should have perhaps been reigned in to allow certain moments of raised voices to have a greater impact.
The space at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant is incredibly versatile with many different stage and audience layouts possible. I am not convinced that this layout worked quite as intended because the stage did seem noticeably too wide and I could not discern what the reason for this might be. Off to one side of the stage was the major’s office, which was difficult for audience members on the other side of the stage to see properly. Most of the action does take place centrally, but with so much space available, some sections felt like the cast were being placed throughout the stage purely to make use of the space, rather than for any storytelling of directorial purpose. As previously stated, the dialogue and the script is the highlight of the show, so some peculiar set and staging choices do not detract too much from the show.
I do want to make a small note on the casting. It was slightly jarring to me to have such a large cast seemingly consisting entirely of white men. We are already suspending our disbelief that these German scientists would all speak entirely in English with posh British accents, I think we could have also suspended our disbelief to have some greater diversity in the casting. I do not know what the casting process was like, so it is entirely possible that being white and male was not a prerequisite for the roles, but the end result still felt quite jarring to me.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this play. I would recommend it to anyone who has any interest in history and philosophy, but also people who just enjoy clever dialogue being spoken by clever people (some moments were reminiscent of Aaron Sorkins work). All in all, a thoroughly entertaining show which raises (and answers) some interesting questions and will have you running to Wikipedia after the show to learn more about the lives of these characters.
Operation Epsilon is playing at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant until the 21st October.