Review: Wolf's Lair at The Basement

Wolf's Lair showcases Sophie Roberts' impressive talents as a character actress. Photo / Supplied by Andrew Kennedy

Hitler's inner circle is sensitive subject matter for theatrical drama; portraying the "soft" side of historical monsters is risky. But actress Sophie Roberts and director Willem Wassenaar of Almost A Bird Theatre Collective are far too subtle and thoughtful to present crass sensationalism or over-ambitious explorations of evil within this short devised solo show.

Instead, Wolf's Lair - an intricately structured showcase of Roberts' impressive talents as a character actress - examines the memories of someone who was not evil, but was willing to do Evil's donkey work, as long as the perks were right.

Traudl Junge is the real-life lackey taking dictation from the German dictator. Sitting among reel-to-reel tapes of her own stories, Roberts' Junge repeats and rehearses careful phrases about safe biographical details.

But her retelling of her last meeting with Hitler reveals her unrevised regard of him: "I don't hear the last things that he says to me!" she cries, choked up with regret.

The play's visual simplicity - dark dress, dark chair, dark background - lets Roberts' expressively mobile face shine, as her performance jumps effortlessly between Junge at different ages and her remembered women, coquette Eva Braun and martinet Magda Goebbels.

As a counterpoint to its deliberately monochrome look, Wolf's Lair is aurally complex - Thomas Press's wonderful soundscape mixes haunting violins and cellos with recordings of Roberts' voice and the amplified clack of a typewriter.

Although Hitler's fondness for pretty girls is noted, Wolf's Lair isn't focused on the banality of evil but the soothing, conscience-lulling effect of its power.

The obvious, unspoken question is: what would you do in Junge's place? You're 22; you've found good work in wartime with a "nice" boss in a safe place around glamorous people. Would you drown the despot in the bathtub, or resign, or would you stay on and enjoy it?

Wolf's Lair is behind the zeitgeist - Junge's memoir and the subsequent documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary came out in 2002 and the fictionalised Downfall came out in 2004 - but its message is perennial, and presented with polish: political inactivity is not neutrality. It's worth remembering that incompetence as well as evil needs apathetic people to serve as minions.