Judgement Day

Synopsis

A train crash. 17 dead. A stuck signal. An accused station master professing innocence. An accusing wife. A guilt ridden woman. The one day station master Thomas Hudetz neglects his duty, his life changes forever. Judgment Day explores the moral dilemmas faced by our actions and the consequences of trying to swim against the tide of a baying society.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 11 September 2009

A stationmaster who has always followed orders and done his duty is diverted from his post for a split second and causes a disaster. An express thunders through the station and crashes into a goods train, killing eighteen people and injuring many others.

This central incident in Odon von Horvath’s remarkable 1937 play Judgment Day, newly translated by Christopher Hampton, leads to an enquiry, a case of perjury, a murder and the hounding of the stationmaster, Thomas Hudetz, by his own demons as much as the righteous townspeople.

The play was given a stunning Expressionist British premiere by Stephen Daldry at the Old Red Lion 20 years ago, but James Macdonald’s equally fine Almeida production is more measured, more evenly atmospheric and thoroughly hypnotic, as the action revolves slowly – rather as a Donmar revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross did some years back – on Miriam Buether’s wooden platform, a literally terminal interchan...

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Latest User Review

rds - 18 October 2009:

It reminded me at times of one of those horror films from Hammer House (come on you remember!) when the villagers gang up together to oust someone or other taking refuge in the local tavern. They had flaming torches then, but we had the pleasure of watching lamps yo-yoing from the Almeida's fly instead. And why have so many accents going on? Unfortunately the style of acting had more than a whiff of Hammer House too. Individually their were some interesting performances, but as a whole it didn't stick together. It should have closed on page four of the reading. Never mind, they can't always get it right can they? That would be too much to ask for and besides we wouldn't enjoy the good so much if we didn't have the bad to compare....

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