The Prussian Officer is adapted from the classic D.H. Lawrence story about a young officer’s attraction to his orderly. Escalating from professional to personal and a power dynamic that takes hold and turns a tormented relationship into a disturbing abuse of authority.

Whilst the text deals with some heavy issues, (physical and mental abuse), the performances, unfortunately, do not do the text justice. There is no clear build-up of either emotions or the shift in power.

The emotions we do see are physical only. The body language is not severe enough or consistent to be believable. No dialogue takes place at the same time as any movement, they are for some unknown reason kept separate, which appears unnatural.

Quite a bit of the dialogue also includes speaking to characters the audience cannot see, but again this does not feel like the actors are “seeing” these characters, so it is quite a struggle for the audience to see them. The focus of the performance, generally, is quite internal. Nothing is played out, but rather to each other or down to the stage.

This is an unfortunate attempt at a story which has the potential to make a hard-hitting point, but fails to make any points at all.

Disappointing and Underwhelming.

The Prussian Officer is part of Birmingham Fest which runs across Birmingham until July 28th. More details can be found here: http://birminghamfest.co.uk/events/

Review written by Rachel Louise Martin

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