July 18 - 27 2002
Directed by John Batstone
Cressida and Julian Field live comfortably in the English countryside with their elderly Ukrainian odd-job man and friend of the family, Romka. suddenly the police arrive. What has Romka done? ... Is he guilty? ... Is there a time limit on revenge and punishment? ...
The Handyman looks at questions surrounding culpability, retribution, universal responsibility and the possibility of evil in a story that holds and intrigues the audience from start to finish.
The play takes place in the 1990’s on warm summer’s days in the garden of a house in the Sussex countryside, with some scenes in interview rooms at Scotland Yard where recorded interviews are also played.
The Handyman was first performed at the Minerva, Chichester, in 1996, with Frank Finlay in the title role, a year after Ronald Harwood’s ‘Taking Sides’. Both plays take as their theme issues arising from World War II: war crimes, attitudes towards Jews, guilt and responsibility. This play asks questions about how far society should demand retribution for crimes, even if committed in another place, at another time. How can we be sure that in seeking punishment we are not in fact seeking revenge, and if so what does this tell us about ourselves?
The particular situation in the play of whether Romka, the Ukrainian, participated in these atrocities fifty years ago is perhaps not capable of confident resolution. Strong evidence seems to be unearthed, but it is circumstantial. His own protestations of innocence seem equally strong but there is something uncomfortable in his recollected attitude towards the Communists and his somewhat blurred distinction between them and the Jews in Eastern Europe in the early years of World War II.
The play is set in a lovely garden, probably not far from here, itself a tribute to Romka’s labours. As the play unfolds there is a powerful contrast between what we are looking at and what we are hearing about: mass-graves, quick-lime. Has Romka always been – the handyman? If Romka is condemned, not only what will become of the garden but also what of the marriage of the couple who have sustained it and him?
Andrew Gregorovich published the following article “in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of V-E Day and in memory of the ten million.”
He comments:
Ukraine's role in the war is basically unknown in the world. For example, one
American encyclopaedia of World War II does not even include an entry on
Ukraine. For almost a half century Soviet and Ukrainian archives were closed to
historians but today it is possible to do scholarly research in Ukraine and
Moscow. This may finally provide a more accurate picture than has been possible
with existing sources.
Every Ukrainian family suffered losses in the war and many had victims of both
Hitler and Stalin. Perhaps it is significant that out of three of my relatives
who were victims of the war, two were shot by Stalin's USSR and one was shot by
Hitler's Gestapo. Ukraine has thousands of World War II monuments. Very small
villages often have a monument listing the names of the World War II dead.
Ukrainian losses probably numbered 10 million or half of the entire USSR total
and twenty per cent of the entire World War II total of fifty million dead.
I would like to thank the University of Toronto for granting me a year of
Research Leave (Sabbatical) which provided me with the time to research this
article and my forthcoming book.”
The monument over the grave of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Kaniv, Ukraine, surrounded by the barbed wire of a German concentration camp in World War II.
In 1993 the Jewish population of Ukraine was 1.5 million (1,532,776) or 3% of the total population of Ukraine. When the War started on June 22 1941, the Soviet Government first of all ordered the execution of all 19,000 Ukrainian political prisoners in western Ukraine (750,000 had already been killed or exiled to Siberia) and then the evacuation of 3.5 million key personnel to the east, to Russia.
These evacuees included many Jews who were highly educated, and were scientists, skilled workers, Communist bureaucrats and NKVD secret police. The total evacuated was estimated to be about one-half to two-thirds of the total Jewish population of Ukraine. (Reitlinger p. 251)
As the German Army swept east across Ukraine it included German Einsatzgruppen with 500 to 1000 men which were special mobile killing squad ordered to carry out “The Final Solutions” of killing all Jews. Ukraine had been the major part of the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russian Empire and in the 19th century probably had the most Jews of any country in the world. Within a few days of capturing Ukrainian cities like Lutsk, Zhitomir and Berdichev in the summer of 1941 thousands of Jews were killed. A total of 600,000 Ukrainian Jews perished. Most of these executions were carried out by the SS Standartfuehrer Paul Blobel who was the officer of the Sonderkommando 4A, Einsatzgruppe C. Only German personnel, no Ukrainians, were members of the Einsatzgruppe C & D which were assigned to Ukraine.
Blobel commanded the killing of Ukrainian Jews of Kiev at Babyn Yar (Babi Yar) on September 29th to the 30th 1941. Blobel’s unit killed 33,771 Jews in less than two days which was not equalled in Auschwitz or any other death camp. Babyn Yar was commemorated on its 50th anniversary in 1991 by the government of Ukraine which has also built two monuments for the victims of Babyn Yar. Blobel was tried at Nurenberg and hanged on June 8th 1951 in Landsberg prison in Bavaria, Germany.
In all the countries of Europe the Nazis found collaborators willing to help in their crimes and Ukraine was no exception. The collaborators were criminal elements who constituted only a tiny fraction of a few thousand in a total population of 40 million. Ukrainians had proportionately the smallest number of collaborators of all 14 eastern European countries and most of them were caught and executed at the end of the War. All WWII war criminals should be bought to justice.
Moscow saw an opportunity to sow discord in Ukraine and it’s propaganda accused the UPA, other Ukrainian nationalists and the ‘Ukrainian’ police of anti-Jewish crimes and other crimes. But the ‘Ukrainian’ police, (Ukrainasche Hilfungspolizei/Ukrainian Auxillary police) were often not Ukrainains by origin at all, but represented many nationalities. For instance, Poles, Volksdeutsch (local Germans) and even Russians speaking the Russian language were often called ‘Ukrainain’ police.
Copyright © 1995 by Andrew Gregorovich, Toronto-Scranton
| Roman Kozachenko 'Romka' | David Penrose |
| Cressida Field | Judy Bodenham |
| Julian Field | Chris Walker |
| Det. Insp. Washbourne | Sharman Callam |
| Det. Const. Mather | Richard Le-Moingan |
| Marian Stone | Sally Hartley |
| Nikita Fedorenko | John Scadding |
| Sister Sophia | Ruth Prior |
| Stage Management | Sam Emery and Mark Wakeman |
| Set Design | Simon Walton |
| Lighting Design | Andrew Caple |
| Lighting Operator | Simon Walton |
The music we hear is from ‘Quartet for the End of Time’, by Olivier Messiaen. It was written at Stalag 8A in Gorlitz, Silesia, where Messiaen was a prisoner of war, and was first performed there in January 1941 by Messiaen and three other prisoners. Also, in Act II, there is music from Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’, Bei Mannern, welche Liebe Fuhlen and Zum Ziele fuhrt dich diese Bahn
During this production we are able to see the play in its re-written form for the first time. The playwright felt dissatisfied with the original version ending with the powerful clash between the two women. The new version re-focuses the attention on Romka himself and we can leave the theatre puzzling over the implications of his final monologue – and lullaby! Our feeling is that the play is enriched (though still without easy or comfortable answers) in its new form.
We were lucky enough to be able to welcome the author of the play, Ronald Harwood, to a rehearsal and to discuss the play with him. Here are some highlights :
Do you think Romka is guilty?
RH: I don’t know and if I did I wouldn’t tell the audience. I don’t believe in
using the theatre to ‘teach’ but rather to provoke, intrigue and leave them
wondering. I like the play to have ‘grey’ areas.
Where do you stand on Jewish issues?
RH: I happen to be Jewish but I don’t consider myself a ‘Jewish’ playwright.
Sometimes in conversation with people I don’t know I say early on that I am
Jewish; this is not being self-conscious but rather to prevent any embarrassment
about what may be said later. I was not pleased when on a TV Arts discussion
programme the poet and critic Tom Paulin, speaking of Mahler’s Conversion,
referred to me as ‘the Jewish playwright’. I don’t start from an agenda but I
don’t think any thoughtful or serious person can address aspects of the last
century without acknowledging the critical area of the Nazi regime. So called
‘Holocaust denial’ is very dangerous at the moment, the work of David Irvine and
attitudes towards Israel, frightening in their implications.
‘The Handyman’ was first staged in 1996. Do you think that in its referring to
special legislation to deal with post-war immigrants, a key issue at the time,
it is now dated?
RH: Far from it. The concerns I’ve tried to give voice to are if anything, more
relevant. Outbursts of anti-Semitic feeling, the emergence of aggressive
right-wing populism demand continual vigilance on the part of people who like to
consider themselves civilised.
How do you feel about us, a small local amateur company, putting on your play?
RH: Very happy. It will be particularly interesting the new ending getting an
airing. Normally I never go back. When a play is done, it’s done. On to the next
thing. You will know this play now better than I remember it. Good luck!