Benchtours

Although it is hardly a typical Lyceum show, Benchtour’s production of The First To Go threatens to be challenging and spectacular theatre. Based on a script by Nabil Shaban, who recently excelled in Theatre Workshop’s Endgame, it takes on the Nazi attitude to disablement and tells of history that has often been obscured.

Peter Clerke, director and founder of Benchtours explained the collaboration. “Nabil emailed us just about two years ago. He was working with another production company and the arts council recommended that he worked with a company with more experience: so he got in touch with us.” But as Catherine Gillard, Benchtours’ co-artistic director, adds, it was far from an easy journey to the stage.

“He started working on it ten years ago. But it has never been performed in full before. It has had rehearsed readings - one at the Festival and at Theatre Workshop here. The arts council did an assessment; they were keen to see it go on. He has been here, there and everywhere and never got it done.”

Even now, the play has had a hard time finding a space in the schedules. The tour - that takes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews - is shorter than Benchtour’s previous excursions, possibly because of the controversial material. Gillard notes: “theatres worry about how they are going to sell something uncomfortable,” while Clerke admits that it has been “the most problematic show we’ve tried to sell.”

Set in an institute of eugenics, the three inmates battle to keep their hope alive when their fate appears inevitable and desperate. Mixing humour and an uncompromising look at victims of the Nazi drive for perfection, it raises questions about our own attitudes towards disability. Clerke sees it as important theatre, but also in a social context. “It’s really powerful. This is work that should be seen, a history that people should know about. It contributes to the eugenics debate. It challenges people’s ideas about human worth.”

Regardless of the subject matter, The First to Go offers Scottish audiences another chance to see Shaban perform. Clerke rightly points out that “He’s one of the leading actors of his generation,” and Gillard concludes “A remarkable man as well… you can’t stop him! He does everything: acting, filming and writing.” Shaban’s performance in Endgame managed to unearth the beauty of Beckett’s prose even as the abject misery of the setting wore down the character.

In his own play, he brings a sharp political engagement and a clear style that avoids the obvious and personalises a shocking period of history. A difficult evening, perhaps: but also a rewarding one.