Edinburgh 2002

Fringe

Goering's Defence
The Scotsman Assembly

Geoff Kidder

Ross Gurney-Randall gives a powerful performance as Hermann Goering defending himself at the Nuremburg trials, with insights into the running of the Nazi Party and Goering's role in it all.

This is one man, standing by his beliefs and actions of a lifetime against all the odds, quite prepared to die for his sins. In another context this gesture would be seen as heroic, but in the light of Goering's role in the barbarous Nazi regime it is seen as scandalous and beyond the pale.

There was light relief when Gurney-Randall fluffed his lines and referred to Kronenbourg instead of Hindenburg. But the accompanying programme notes warn us of 'man's capacity for hatred and genocide', and that these horrors have reoccured in various places including Iraq. In a sense, Goering's defence is more a lesson in global citizenship than it is theatre.

Apart from the fact that this is quite dull, the problem for me is that the Nuremberg trials were part of the victor's justice after the war. So however despicable a person, the figure of Goering in the dock more brings to mind a show trial than a nascent fascist threat.

I suppose the final irony is that if Iraq is laid to waste in the coming months it will not be by jackbooted Bavarians but the heirs of US prosecutor Justice Jackson.

Until August 26: 14.50 (1hr).