The Handyman review, Everyman Cheltenham/UK Tour

The Handyman aired in the 1990s, but its central concern about war criminals still has currency. The potent question is why so many people argue against the arraignment of elderly Nazis for crimes perpetrated during the Second World War. Ronald Harwood's play - about a doddery Ukranian, Romka Kazachenko, brought to England to be the family handyman on the estate of a British officer - points to the theological disconnect between Christianity and Judaism. He suggests it's because we have more in common with the aggressors than the victims.

Romka is now caring for the officer's daughter and her husband - Cressida and Julian. The three are united by their strong Catholic faith and a love of nature. Their cosy existence is upended when the police arrive and arrest Romka for his part in the murder of 817 Jews. Funded by the couple, he protests his innocence with such vigour that Cressida ultimately colludes with him, preferring to deny the holocaust than face the truth about his actions. 

Harwood's point is simple. We are still vengeful over the murder of five children in Yorkshire fifty years ago. Kill a few million Jews and fifty years is far too long a time to be worrying about it. The play, currently at The Everyman, Cheltenham, is surprisingly clunky. Much of the first half has Romka's solicitor - chosen for her Jewish name, though it's her husband who's Jewish - setting out the legal and moral case. Too much. The second half is more finely presented and enjoyable, featuring odd but strangely powerful film inserts from Steven Berkoff as a fellow Ukrainian Nazi and Vanessa Redgrave as a nun who witnessed the atrocity. 

In conclusion: Timothy West as Romka is both sympathetic and sinister but his co-stars struggle to deliver didactic dialogue naturally. The simple set is very clever, as is the touch of dressing the stage hands as Ukranian army cadets.

Reference
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