Review: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Cast, DoncasterIt is brave, if not courageous, for Northern Ballet to even attempt to stage The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. An immediate bestseller, John Boyne's novel tells the harrowing story of a young Aryan German lad, who, in the middle of the Second World War befriends a Jewish captive held in an adjacent concentration camp where his father is the Commandant.
FRIENDSHIP: Filippo Di Vilio and Matthew Koon in Northern Ballets The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.Picture: Emma KauldharFRIENDSHIP: Filippo Di Vilio and Matthew Koon in Northern Ballets The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.Picture: Emma Kauldhar
FRIENDSHIP: Filippo Di Vilio and Matthew Koon in Northern Ballets The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.Picture: Emma Kauldhar

However, we are used to challenging theatre from NBT and the evening is brilliantly danced visually innovative and chilling. But – and there are big buts here – there are a number of failures.

The first is Gary Yershon’s jarring score, which is a relentless assault on the ears and adds nothing to the atmosphere of the piece. The characterisation is similarly pretty crude. The evil menace of Herr Hitler is portrayed as a cross-between the Childcatcher of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Jeff Goldblum’s portrayal of The Fly.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

While Daniel de Andrade’s choreography contains some delicate and frequently touching moves, there are others that will remind audiences of John Cleese impersonating a German soldier in Fawlty Towers.

This is a curate’s egg of a production which teeters around between the tear-jerking and the risible, and it never quite knows where (or how) it wants to go. However, there are some wonderfully charismatic performances from Matthew Koon and Filippo Di Vilio as the youngsters who find themselves on either side of the dividing line and it’s through them that the evening becomes relevant and affecting.

The doomed Lieutenant Kotler, a man who has clearly been a fervent supporter of the Nazi Youth Movement, is another performance to watch – Sean Bates has him to perfection, riding high, puffed up with his SS arrogance, and then, suddenly, stripped of his power and banished to the front.

Is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas genuine dance material? Well, it has its moments. But those moments 
are emphatically not found in the music. Not for a single depressing second.

The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas is now on tour and will be at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Hull New Theatre in the autumn.