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This Arthur Miller play – written in 1964, but set in 1942 – has not been seen on a professional London stage for decades. If you’re more used to the entrenched American stories and family drama of Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ or ‘A View from The Bridge’, this play's French wartime setting and sharp and enquiring claustrophobia might come as a surprise. But this pointed and unsettling revival at the Finborough makes a strong case for its relevance.
‘Incident at Vichy’ is set entirely in a police cell, presented as a tight white box in Phil Wilmott’s suffocating production, with the offstage sound of opening and slamming doors adding to an escalating sense of oppression. Ten men are crammed into this space, each of them archetypes (a boy, a gypsy, an old Jew, a businessman) and each of them has been hauled off the streets of Vichy by their Nazi occupiers for reasons unclear. Are the rumours of death camps true? Or should we pay more attention to the self-regarding businessman who has no idea why he’s here and thinks it’s all just a routine documents check?
Miller nails a sense of being in the middle of history as it unfolds: the ignorance and misinformation and the terrifying lack of knowledge and hindsight. More importantly, though, he asks whether there’s any solidarity among the persecuted, and the answers are varied, open-ended and provocative. The intensity of this play, with its frightened talk and loaded entries and exits, is only heightened by the feat of cramming a cast of 13 (ten prisoners and three Nazis) on to the tiny Finborough stage. The cast is of mixed ability, but their distinct faces are collectively powerful – a casting coup – and even those that remain silent or say very little make their presence strongly felt. This is buried treasure.
Incident at Vichy transfers to the King's Head Theatre in June 2017. This review is from its April 2017 opening at the Finborough Theatre.