A retelling of Operation Epsilon which falls flat in the face of such a heightened moment in history
After a successful run at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2023, Farm Hall has now transferred to Theatre Royal Haymarket, on until the end of August. The idea is initially intriguing, the plot being based on the true story of Operation Epsilon. This was when the Allied forces held a group of German scientists in a bugged house near Cambridge, intending to spy on them and listen to their conversations, primarily to determine how far Nazi Germany had been to making an atomic bomb.
Set in one room of the house, the scientists Max Von Laue (David Yelland), Wener Heisenberg (Alan Cox), Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker (Daniel Boyd), Otto Hahn (Forbes Masson), Kurt Diebner (Julius D’Silva) and Erich Bagge (Archie Backhouse), discuss why they are being held at Farm Hall, and wonder when they will be released. The script is quick and witty, and very funny at moments as we listen to their back-and-forth. Previously having worked together in Germany during the Nazi regime, we see tensions arise as they argue about their different relations and feelings towards their country as well as their work and opposing scientific theories. Halfway through the play, they hear the news on the radio that America has dropped atomic bombs on Japan. Shocked as to how America ‘achieved’ this, they are met with feelings of failure, shame, and jealousy. But this is about it. I would have liked to hear more discussions around the science of the atomic bomb, but more so, discussions on the repercussions of what America did and how catastrophic they knew the bomb would be. This would have added that needed heaviness to the play, which is ultimately about the history of such a horrendous weapon and the roles individuals play in war and conflict.
The acting by the cast often felt over the top, and exaggerated, with some cheap jokes which felt uncomfortable at points. If anything, the depth of the characters which was built up as the play went on, didn’t meet the potential of the time they were exploring. Rather than a fairly flat simple retelling of this historical moment, a more nuanced, morally complex, imaginative reconstruction of what happened at Farm Hall would have been a more interesting watch. The transcripts of the scientist’s conversations, which were declassified in 1992, must have provided some material which could have been played around with more creatively.
If you want to know more about this fairly unknown point in history, I would check out Farm Hall, however it doesn’t feel enough simply to stage something, quite basically, which has affected so many people around the world.