Paranoid and considered – an adept adaptation worth attending
Thoughtful and imagistic, The Passenger does justice to its source material, tackling the
challenging task of re-imagining Jewish businessman Otto Silbermann’s paranoia-ridden world on the compact Finborough Theatre stage.
Experienced director Tim Supple expertly utilizes physicality, spacing, and pointed
movement to evoke the visceral reality of transport asylum in 1938 Germany.
Having been fleeced of his home, robbed of his business, and torn from his wife, Otto must seek safety aboard the German rail system as a Jew navigating the perilous world created by Hitler’s Third Reich. With nothing but a briefcase full of money and his “lucky” Aryan-passing appearance, he faces scrutiny at every turn, cherishing each forgiving stare or deflected glance while constantly evading suspicion.
The play runs ninety minutes straight with no intermission, a choice that intensifies the
rail-grinding tension as the miles pass beneath Otto’s clenched feet.
The fearful, gritty, dreamlike atmosphere of the piece is its greatest strength and central
focus. This is established through constant fog, dim lighting, clever spotlights, and a truly remarkable effort from the costume department—trench-coated, hat-clad nameless stalkers keep both our protagonist and the audience teetering on edge. However, this brings me to one drawback of the Finborough Theatre’s intimate space.
The shoving, claustrophobic sensation of trying to escape through a throng is captured well as the actors clamber over audience members to traverse the stage. While this achieves the desired effect of never quite allowing the viewer to sit comfortably, I couldn’t help but wish for slightly fewer aisle-shuffling interactions.
The cast consists of five actors, four of whom take on multiple roles to flesh out the web of characters surrounding Robert Neumark Jones’ Otto. Once again, the illustrious set and costume designer Hannah Schmidt ensures each character is distinct, and in concert with the cast’s entertaining and nuanced performances, I never once mistook one character for another.
That said, some of the writing felt redundant. Themes or character traits were often revealed cleverly through subtext, only for Otto to immediately state what had just transpired, functioning as an unnecessary, shoehorned narrator. While this may have been an attempt to replicate the novel’s inner monologue, it felt clunky in an otherwise slick production. Fans of the book won’t be disappointed, and theatre lovers will appreciate this thoughtful adaptation.