Judgement
T0
Based on an episode during the Second World War described briefly in George Steiner's
The Death of Tragedy: The Germans, abandoning a monastery in Southern Poland, left seven captured Soviet officers locked in a cellar. Two of the prisoners managed to stay alive by killing and devouring their companions. Eventually the survivors were found - crazed - by the advancing Red Army. First they were given a decent meal, then they were shot, 'lest the soldiers see to what abjection their former officers had been reduced' (Steiner).
Judgement is a re-imagination of the monastery incident, based on the premise that one of the survivors was sane. Andrei Vukhov, a Russian Army captain, stands alone before his judges.
Judgement is a cool clinical investigation into the moral and philosophical laws of human degradation, survival and the nature of guilt and sanity. A compelling tale of terror, tenderness, bravery and the indomitable spirit of the human being to survive whatever the cost.
Archive :: play:S1795, venue:V038595796
