Primo Levi's classic account of his internment in Auschwitz, If This Is A Man, is an astonishing work: a strangely serene memoir of desolate lyricism that sears hellish images on to your memory.
Yet Levi refuses to sink into bitterness, instead choosing to highlight the glimmers of goodness in the camp and assert the essential dignity of man.
It's a tall order to translate this to the stage, but Antony Sher and director Richard Wilson handle the text beautifully. Sher's adaptation is reverential, keeping Levi's prose intact.
Sher himself, who delivers the piece as a 90-minute monologue, appears on stage looking like a college professor, with round glasses, beige trousers and a sleeveless, woollen cardigan.
His actions on the stark, bare stage are as muted as his appearance; the different scenarios he describes (the windowless wagon, shower room, examination etc) suggested only through Paul Pyant's delicate lighting design and Robin Thompson-Clarke's unobtrusive cello-playing.
Sher conveys a bewilderment throughout the piece, in keeping with Levi's tone, and lets the author's moments of humour shine through.
At points, though, he delivers lines with a steely-eyed, barely suppressed rage that is clearly Sher's own. It's not surprising: few could take the stance Levi managed to achieve. And maybe, as atrocities take place in prison camps from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay, that anger is the spur we need.
In rep until Dec 1 (next perf tonight), Cottesloe, National Theatre, South Bank SE1, 7.30pm, mats 2.30pm, £10 to £27 (returns only). Tel: 020 7452 3000. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Tube: Waterloo/Embankment
Primo
