Our Class
National Theatre, London
On July 10 1941, around 1,600 Jews were burnt alive in a barn in the small Polish town of Jedwabne. For years, this was condemned as just another Nazi atrocity. However, recent research – in particular, a 2001 study by Polish-born American sociologist and historian Jan T Gross – has suggested that the war crime was actually committed by the local Polish community.
This brutal act lies at the heart of Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s powerful and moving play, which is also an exploration of the unspoken crimes committed against Jews in Poland – the burying of guilt and the rewriting of history.
In this version adapted by Ryan Craig, which is running in repertoire at the Cottesloe Theatre, we follow the intertwined stories of 10 Polish classmates from Jedwabne. Five are Jewish and five are Roman Catholic. The play opens in 1925 and the children amuse themselves with light-hearted banter and share their various aspirations. These range from owning a mill to becoming a pilot, fireman and film star.
Relations become strained in the 1930s, when the Jewish students begin to be separated from their Catholic classmates during prayer time. In 1939, with the arrival of the Soviets in Jedwabne, the Jewish community become scapegoats for the deportations and murders that ensue under Stalin. The bloodshed causes further animosity between the former classmates – particularly those perceived as collaborators by the resistance fighters – leading to reprisal beatings, rape and murder.
Tensions continue to escalate until the arrival of the Nazis in 1941. Then the rounding-up of the Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne begins. The confiscation of their property and ritual humiliation swiftly follows, culminating in the horrific massacre.
Slobodzianek shines a torch into his country’s darkest corners, with evocative scenes of farmer boys wielding clubs and members of the Jewish community brought, literally, to their knees when forced to weed the market cobblestones with spoons.
The ensemble cast is superb – conveying, by turns, all the frailty, cruelty, kindness, and savagery that is human nature. Director Bijan Sheibani expertly navigates this explosive territory. Our class is performed in the round with a minimum of props – something that seems to have become his hallmark – allowing the power of the story to stand alone. Although the audience is often one step ahead of action – we either know or sense what is about to unfold – Sheibani’s precise direction allows the tragedy to seep through gradually, while the full horror is mitigated by songs from the time.
Judging by the some of the conflicts that have erupted between neighbours over the past five decades, history has taught us nothing. The culpability of the Poles in the destruction of their fellow countrymen and women does not make comfortable viewing. It does provide a poignant reminder that, while aggression remains dormant in the majority, when violence erupts, even among a minority, the consequences can be catastrophic.
Lucy Popescu
