‘A Bright Room Called Day’ by Tony Kushner

At the Southwark Playhouse

29th July, 2014

A guest review by Derek Linney

Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day marked our first visit to the Southwark Playhouse – currently temporarily located in an office/warehouse building near Elephant & Castle but due to return to its roots at London Bridge station once redevelopment there is complete. The theatre immediately appealed to us: a friendly bar/restaurant and a small intimate theatre space that well suited the production.

The play is set in the early 1930s in Weimar Germany where we are effectively present in the main room of an apartment and observe the daily comings and goings of a group of friends centred around the principal character of Agnes. During the play the mood gradually changes from the optimism of the young participants and their support for the KPD (German communist party) to the violence of National Socialism and its persecution of Jews, political opponents (especially communists), homosexuals and radical artists; all of whom are represented among the cast of characters. Continue reading A Bright Room Called Day →