Good
Here's an apt and timely analogy to baseball's spring training: Watching the motions of an athlete's practice is not everyone's cup of tea, but for the devoted, just observing the mechanics of the craft can be well worth the trip. Similarly, in the Hilberry production of Good, the best parts of the show offer the audience a fine opportunity to watch skilled actors follow through on a complicated premise. For me, that was more than enough for a rewarding experience.
John Halder (Erman Jones) is a German author and professor of literature who is actively recruited during the 1930s to consult with the National Socialist party on their practices and ensure that their actions are humane. Thus, his novel that delicately concludes with the mercy killing of an infirm old woman leads to a commissioned academic paper in which he definitively argues in favor of euthanasia (little does he know to how many populations the Nazis extend this conclusion). Later, a reasoned discussion of cultivating a calming patient experience to the last moments becomes a clear precursor to gas chambers. Having the benefit of neither perspective nor hindsight, Halder progresses through the war with only a loose ambition to be "good," with no idea — or at least no will to contemplate — the devastating consequences of his self-serving actions.
March 4, 2010