What's it like to have someone give his life for you? You are about to die a long and agonising death through starvation and dehydration, but then someone else offers to take your place. That is what happened to Franciszek Gajowniczek, known as Franek, in Auschwitz in 1941, and the man who took his place in the starvation chamber was Maximilian Kolbe.
This was the story told in Kolbe's Gift, the play performed on Friday 22nd September in the church hall by Ten Ten Productions. Given the subject matter it could hardly fail to be powerful, but playwright David Gooderson achieved something both profound and moving in his interweaving of the lives of Kolbe and Franek, the focus shifting backwards and forwards in time, as we saw both the events that lead up to Kolbe's internment and eventual death in Auschwitz, and the difficulties that faced Franek in dealing with the gift that he had been given: life. For of course, after the war, the communist authorities in Poland did all in their power to undermine Franek's story, spreading rumours that he was a coward and a drunkard. Gooderson's play, based entirely on documentary evidence and interviews, compellingly revealed the clarity with which Kolbe understood the logic of the concentration camps. They were manifestations, in wire and wood, of the 'gospel of hate', designed to reduce their inhabitants to the state of insects scuttling for a survival that could be extinguished by a momentary whim on the part of those in power.
One of the most chilling parts of the play was when the camp
commandant, excellently played by Robert Blackwood, selects the ten
prisoners who are to die.
'You.'
'You.'
'You.'
Last of all was Franek (Richard Woolnough, in a performance of great depth). At that point Kolbe steps forward, to oppose the gospel of love to the gospel of hate. John Ioannou as Kolbe not only looked like the saint, but conveyed the intensity and courage of the man. It is no easy task to play a saint while still keeping him human; Mr Ioannou did it magnificently.The performance on Friday was in fact the first night, and there were signs of that: some lines were missed and occasionally timing was out, but these did little to detract from the experience, and as the tour proceeds the production should become more polished. However, we were fortunate to see the first performance of this excellent retelling of one of the pivotal moments of the blood-drenched 20th century. May there never be another like it.