A European Playwright Writing In English
Pure Walking Evil
Pure Walking Evil (under the title Propaganda Fide) opened at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London 1989, to great critical acclaim, and was subsequently performed in Romania in 1990 as part of the first post-revolutionary Romanian Festival Of Theatre. It tells the story of the Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels attempts to break the faith and will of the oppositional Lutheran priest Pastor Martin Niemöller. Goebbels constructs intellectual and theological arguments, all diabolical, aplenty. Niemöller says virtually nothing, but ultimately wins.
The play is also a study of the effect of Goebbels' dissembling on the character of his loyal wife Magda, who in many ways has the leading part. Magda's tragedy is that she is married to a man so corrupt he's not ultimately worth the emotional effort, but she can't see that until it's too late, whereas Goebbels' actress mistress can see it all too clearly ...
A reading of Pure Walking Evil took place in New York at the Genesius Guild, May 2002. and there was a reading at the Questors Theatre, London 2001.
This play, under the title Propaganda, also had a production at the Edinburgh Festival, 2004.
Cast: 3 men, 2 women
Production history: The Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 1989, National Theatre of Romania 1990/1, Vox Humana Los Angeles 2003, Edinburgh Festival 2004
