Stephen Unwin's "All Our Children" Theatre & Performing Arts

The Barn Theatre is proud to present a new production of Stephen Unwin’s powerful drama "All Our Children", opening on 27th March.

It presents us with the events of a single day in early 1941 at a fictional children’s health clinic, serving as a front for the murder of young people with chronic medical conditions, on the grounds that they are incurably ill and socially unproductive, living “lives unworthy of life”. We encounter perpetrators, bystanders, and collaborators; we also meet courageous individuals, who are prepared to challenge the regime’s brutality.

Director John Cook, who has worked with Stephen Unwin on other productions, explains that the playwright had a strong and personal interest in the subject matter, as the parent of a child with severe disabilities (as well as having Jewish ancestry). As John points out, the play carries a strong emphasis on the possibilities of courage, compassion, and resistance. In particular, it features the intervention of Bishop Clemens August von Galen (played by Ian Major), a historical figure whose sermons against the euthanasia programme were a large contributing factor towards its official cessation in 1941.

As it unfolds, the play explores a range of different responses to Action T4. Each of the characters is a rounded individual, operating at different levels of information and moral integrity. Even von Galen is shown to have a dark side – his compassion for vulnerable children does not extend to all victims of the regime.

The central character, Victor Franz (Danny Swanson) , is a senior paediatrician, whose youthful idealism has given way to despair as he vainly attempts to mitigate the demands of the Nazi leadership. He is led to reconsideration by a conversation with von Galen and encounters with Elizabetta Pabst (Francine Ross), the mother of a mentally handicapped child, who delivers some of the play’s most powerful speeches of denunciation.

Franz’s shift in conscience is also influenced by the journey undergone in parallel by Martha, his devoutly Catholic housemaid (Charlotte Collingwood). Initially content to take comfort from the fact that her offspring are seen as “normal” and therefore relatively safe from harm, she is forced to acknowledge that her family is under threat from Nazi ideology in ways that she did not imagine. By the end of the play, she embraces the recognition that the young people targeted by Action T4 are as worthy of compassion as any others: they are “all our children”.

All Our Children is an intentionally provocative play, demanding deep thought about attitudes to disability and society. In particular, the notion that individuals must prove their worth to society through economic productivity comes under intense scrutiny. It is the constant refrain of Eric Schmidt, the Nazi ideologue who brutally administers the clinic (Alfie Hart). Yet Schmidt is not a cypher – alongside his rationalisations the play exposes deeply irrational impulses driving his violence towards the vulnerable.

In presenting this play for the Barn Theatre, John has been able to draw on a cast of seasoned performers. For the cast and crew, creating the production has been a challenging experiencing, uncovering the complexities of a historical situation in a manner that, as John puts it, contrasts with the lack of nuance in much contemporary culture. The set is magnificently designed to reflect the seriousness of the play’s themes and its dramatic intensity.

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