The following was sent to me by the Editor of the newsletter of the British Society of Uruguay and is posted at his request. I plan to see it and write a review–I always wanted to be a theatre critic…
In March a group of professional British actors come to Montevideo to stage a new play on the Battle of the River Plate, seventy years after the event. ‘The Drama of the River Plate’ will appear at the Millington-Drake Theatre, Anglo Centre, San José 1426, for four nights only, from Thursday 26 March to Saturday 28 March at 9pm and on Sunday 29 March at 7pm. All profits from the ticket price of UY$180 will go to a fund designed to bring more shows from the West End to Uruguay each year.
Photo: El PaÃs / Juan Pablo RodrÃguez
Written in English and directed by Jonathan Lamb, the 70-minute work centres around the fascinating character of Hans Langsdorff, left, Captain of the Graf Spee. The actors (left to right below) are Robert Rowe, Andrew Wall and, in the role of Langsdorff, Robert Ashton; accompanied by the voices of Imelda Staunton (star of the film Vera Drake, and teacher Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films), Martin Jarvis (Titanic) and Jim Carter (The Golden Compass).
Seventy years ago, in December 1939, the German pocket battleship Graf Spee and three British cruisers locked horns off South America in the opening sea battle of the Second World War. For a few breathless days the River Plate was the centre of the world. But the real story behind the battle lies in the character of one man: Hans Langsdorff, captain of the Graf Spee.
Langsdorff was a hero of the First World War. A torpedo expert, he had risen high in the German defence ministry in the 1930’s, before choosing to return to sea. He was given command of one of Germany’s latest and most powerful warships, and told to sink British merchant shipping – as long as he and his thousand men could survive. For four long months he roamed the southern oceans, sinking nine ships without causing a single death: his humane character and his code of professional honour meant that he treated his prisoners impeccably, and at least one of them became his friend. But at dawn on 13 December, Langsdorff unchained a sequence of events that cost him his ship, his prestige and, a week later in Buenos Aires, his life.
Who was this gallant, troubled man? Why did he do what he did? Why did he take refuge in Montevideo instead of an Argentine port, and why did he scuttle his ship? Why, in his bedroom in Buenos Aires on the night of 20 December, did he write his last letters, then take the honourable way out? These are some of the questions which, thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds TSB, Lloyds Private Banking and the Anglo, the play will try to answer. Tickets: 9027634/9018819.
