Review: Being Sophie Scholl

The danger of presenting the body as complete in itself is that the society which gave that body its place in a code of social relations turns on it. Sophie Scholl and her friends spent a long time pondering how an individual must act under a dictatorship. And when that dictatorship finally arrived, they were confronted with Nazis.

An erstwhile Hitler Youth member, Scholl became an anti-nazi activist in the non-violent White Rose resistance group. She was arrested by the Gestapo for distributing anti-war leaflets at Ludwig Maximillian University with her brother, Hans. Scholl was 16.

Being Sophie Scoll by Acting Coach Scotland picks up the story on the day of Scholl’s arrest. She is brought into the interview room where Robert Mohr (Adams James Johnston) of the Gestapo routinely interrogates her. Both Scholl and Mohr’s strategic intentions are made clear to the audience by interleaved comments breaking the fourth wall. We learn that Mohr thinks Scholl innocent but goes through the procedure regardless as one never knows what might come out in the wash. Scholl, aware of her own intelligence, thinks she can outsmart the Gestapo. Unsurprisingly, it proves futile. She comes unstuck in responses to questions relating to a suspiciously empty suitcase. The worldly Mohr detects the whiff of falsehoods in the air and things take a downward turn when he informs Scholl that Hans (Alexander McGarrie), has confessed to treason. Scholl decides to take full responsibility to protect other members of the White Rose.

This stripped back production is a riveting retelling of a young woman whose name now takes its place alongside those of Bismarck, Brandt and Goethe. Scholl is played by three actors (Holly Allan, Rachel Gilmour and Emma Rogers); a dialectic which subtly conveys a layered personality. The play moves back and forth in time between meetings with her brother and interrogations in the interview room. Director, Nick Field, deftly negotiates the material, contrasting events to create the necessary levels of tension subsuming the audience into a dark moment in time.

A death sentence and the last rites are two sides of a bad penny; a disturbing currency of distress and peace.

Being Sophie Scholl continues its run at The Space, Symposium Hall, Edinburgh until 26th Aug.