It is widely accepted that World War II began with the German attack on Poland on September 1st, 1939. What is not generally known is the planning and execution of the incident that the Germans used to justify their invasion. Canned Goods, a powerfully written and thought-provoking play by Erik Kahn, examines this incident.
Set in the final days of August 1939 on the border between Nazi Germany and Poland, we see unfold the true story of Operation “Grandmother Died”, the codename for the Nazi false flag operation designed to ostensibly show that Polish soldiers had attacked a radio station in the German border town of Gleiwitz, thereby providing the pretext for the subsequent German invasion of Poland.
The show’s name refers to the doomed individuals who were to be dressed in Polish Army uniforms and sacrificed in the establishment of the staged “attack.” In reality, these Polish “soldiers” were Nazi prisoners from Dachau, murdered at the scene, their features disfigured to ensure that any identification was impossible.
This is a taut, tension-filled 90 minutes, with an ever-increasing palpable sense of escalating fear and emotional strain amongst the three prisoners, Honiok, a Silesian farmer of German/Polish origin, Kruger, a convicted thief, and Birnbaum, a Jewish professor of religion.
These three prisoners are under the watchful control of SS Major Alfred Naujocks, whose relationship with the prisoners has at its core a series of unnerving and unsettling psychological mood swings, switching from smooth, polite, insincere urbanity through to harsh, discordant screeches. There is more than the hint of a crocodile in Naujocks’s sinister smile, sincere only in its sense of insincerity.
In a piece such as this, the success of the production will stand or fall on the quality of the ensemble playing. And here there is much to admire and appreciate.
Tom Wells, as Honiok, successfully communicates his sense of fear, confusion, and ultimate despair as he tries to understand why he has been imprisoned. His concern for the welfare of the animals on his farm, and his devout Catholicism provides a strong human counterbalance to the calculated psychological machinations of his Nazi nemesis. Wells also gives us an additional accurate characterisation of Hitler, where the all too familiar gestures and harsh voice are well portrayed.
Rowan Polonski, as Kruger, is a petty criminal, but is emotionally aligned to the regime. His support for the system that has imprisoned him, and his increasingly fawning obsequiousness to his SS captors is best exemplified by his implacable hostility to his fellow prisoner, Birnbaum, a Jew. Until the very end, Kruger convinces himself that redemption is possible, that his innate loyalty as a “true German,” might save him.
Charlie Archer’s Birnbaum is a cleverly constructed, fully rounded and empathetic characterisation. He is a gentle, educated man, under no illusions as to his eventual fate, and represents unalloyed humanity.
Particular praise must be given to Dan Parr, as SS Major Naujocks. In portraying such a character, it is often too easy to slip into a parody of what we expect an uptight Nazi officer to look like and sound like. Parr avoids this trap, and gives us a multi-faceted, chilling characterisation that is always laced through with a sense of duty and studied dedication, but not fanaticism. His occasional treatment of his prisoners as expendable laboratory specimens with whom he has to communicate is particularly striking in its cold objectivity.
Parr is especially chilling at the beginning of the play, where he stalks amongst the incoming audience, smiling, but not with his eyes. However, it is in the final few minutes where his depiction of Naujocks, (a historically real person), is most unnerving and memorable, breaking the fourth wall to explain how he only served four years for his crimes, before becoming a businessman in post-war Hamburg.
The actors are generally well served by the sparseness of the set, the staging of the production in the round and the harsh lighting which establishes and builds the sense of a pitiless, discomfiting interrogation environment. However, the dramatic intensity is occasionally let down by the inter scene transitions. The appearance of the stage crew with their 21st-century headphones detracted from the credibility of the narrative. The actors could have dealt with the relatively uncomplicated set and prop changes at the end of each scene themselves and thereby maintained the authenticity of the action.
While the play is based on historical fact, the real story lies in the complex psychological entanglement between the three prisoners and the SS Major who ultimately dictates their fates.
There are, of course, obvious subliminal parallels here with the continuing proliferation of what constitutes reality, and how false narratives continue to be used today to advance acts of political and socio-economic oppression.
The evils of propaganda, and the twisting of reality, are as relevant today as they were over 85 years ago. It is, however, to the credit of the writer, the director, and cast of this memorable psychological thriller that these wider themes do not become dominant or preachy.
Canned Goods is a gripping story, and an excellent, thought-provoking piece of theatre, well worth seeking out.
Review by Johnny Oxford
Set against the backdrop of the tense and volatile German border with Poland in 1939, Canned Goods explores the looming threat of fascism as World War II draws closer. Hitler orchestrates a violent false flag operation – a faked Polish attack on a German-speaking radio station – to justify Germany’s invasion of Poland. This chilling plan sets the stage for a gripping story of survival and redemption. As the mission approaches and the pressure intensifies, the three men are forced to confront a terrifying and far-reaching plot much larger than they could have ever imagined.
CAST
SS Major Naujcoks – Dan Parr
Birnbaum – Charlie Archer
Kruger – Rowan Polonski
Honiok – Tom Wells
Guard/Heydrich/Muller – Joe Mallelieu
Swing – Danny Mellor
CREATIVES
Writer – Erik Kahn
Director – Charlotte Cohn
Assistant Director – Sofia Gallucci
Set and Costume Design – Mona Camilla
Lighting Design – Ryan Joseph Stafford
Sound Design – Anna Short
CANNED GOODS
Southwark Playhouse Borough, The Large
16 January to 8 February 2025
