Way to Heaven

From the beginning I find it difficult to contain my jubilation towards this play. It is an absolutely outstanding piece of writing and not necessarily because it deals (indirectly) with the holocaust, a subject that brings with it an inevitable yet all-too-exploited emotional response, but more for the fact that it pushes the usage of the theatrical medium, through its structure, dialogue and general storytelling, into compelling territory; and thus by doing so it also brings a new angle to the historical content on which it is ‘loosely’ based.

The title Way to Heaven derives from the English translation of the German word ‘Himmelweg’. In Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 epic documentary ‘Shoah’ he interviews a Jewish survivor from the Nazi concentration camp Treblinka in Poland; a barber by the name of Abraham Bomba. Bomba recalls that ‘the Germans called this [the ‘funnel’ or schlauch to the gas chambers at Treblinka] “the road to heaven” – Himmelweg’. In the play, a slightly different explanation of ‘Himmelweg’ is given: ‘On the other side of the rails I saw a short concrete ramp, that looked as if it was for unloading cattle. […] The Commandant saw me looking at the hangar. “The infirmary,” he said. “The path between the infirmary and the train, we call it ‘the way to heaven’.’(Mayorga/Johnston p26) Though the phrasing differs between the two descriptions the general idea is the same.

Though the play is not set in a specific existing location, it becomes clear as the action unfolds that it is a concentration camp. The premise of the play is based on the idea that an outsider, a representative of the Red Cross will be coming to inspect the camp and that the Commandant has received orders from Berlin to ‘stage’ an ‘idyllic’ way of life on the day he arrives, a staging performed by inmates and guards alike, so as to deceive the Red Cross representative and of course the outside world that will read his report. It will serve to dispel the rumours of ‘walking skeletons in striped pyjamas’ (Mayorga/Johnston p23) The staging of the camp is based on certain key scenes, such as the entretien with the camp Commandant, the visit to a gathering of people in the camp square, a couple chatting on a bench, a girl playing with a doll by a stream, a man with balloons and Gershom Gottfried as the Jewish tour guide. Most of these scenes are shown in the play, and often repeated, sometimes as rehearsals, sometimes as the unfolding of events on the day the Red Cross representative arrives.

It is important to note that we only know that the whole thing has been staged from half way through the play. The first part is divided between a long monologue/narration by the Red Cross Representative, discussing his report and what he experienced, and then the actual portrayal of those scenes in action on stage. The latter part of the play repeats some of the previous scenes but ultimately serves to show how everything was rehearsed and how absurd the rehearsal process was. It is through the discussion between the Commandant and the Jewish representative of the camp, Gershom Gottfried. Certain key references are made to concepts of theatre and ways of acting, such as Aristotle’s thoughts on composition in writing and the need for an aesthetic balance as explained in chapter 7 of his Poetics, also a long discussion on the ‘actor’s melancholy’; the idea that once a show is over, the actor’s life must return to the mundane grind of reality. This desire to exist in a fantasy world as expressed by the Commandant is a way of relinquishing the moral guilt that weighs his mind down. This play within a play is somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which Hamlet instructs the players on the ways of acting, this opens a clear meta-theatrical dimension to the play and adds a sense of depth, that the drama is operating on several levels.