KAMP at the Samuel Beckett Theatre - an amazing piece of drama with no dialogue

I attended the opening night of KAMP, part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 last night.

This is what they say it’s about:

An enormous model of Auschwitz takes up the whole stage with crowded huts, a railway line, and a gate with the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei”.

The model of the camp comes to life with thousands of 8cm high hand-made puppets, representing the prisoners and their executioners. The actors, like colossal war correspondents, weave through the scene with hand-held cameras. They film the atrocities. The audience becomes witness.

Not a word is spoken, the audience only experiences the sights and sounds, which transcend the powerlessness of the figures into much more than a mere reporting of events.

It is, quite simply, amazing. Performed by Herman Helle, Pauline Kalker and Arlène Hoornweg has three amazing attributes that make it worth seeing:

• The camera angles
• The sounds
• The models and puppeteers

Even from the back of the Samuel Beckett Theatre (the one in Trinity College) I was transfixed, entranced, involved and horrified by what I saw.

This is Auschwitz in a day. Through simple movements, sound effects and then a projection from a small security camera, we see the happenings at the concentration camp from a number of perspectives. There’s no narrative - there’s actually no dialogue - so all you’re doing is watching what happens and making your own judgement on it.

It’s interesting to watch a piece of drama that has no characters. People are portrayed with simple figures, dressed either in German Nazi uniforms, in the concentration camp closed or those who arrive by train in tuxedos, suits, dresses, ball gowns and the like. While you don’t *have* to know all about the history of what happened, it does help. For me anyway having studied a lot of this, the simple method they used to relay it was extremely effective.

The scale of the model is truly impressive. A full six months in production, with the actions of the puppeteers, the sound effects people and the lighting and projectionists taking another six months to develop and perfect. As it is, the performance is excellent. The silence helps rather than distracts and the eye is never left without something to focus on - be that bodies going to ovens, a man being electrocuted or the simple act of sweeping under the watchful eye of a prison guard.

I was extremely grateful there were no human sounds in this production. I don’t think I could have taken it. The repetitive beating during one scene had everyone in the audience on edge. The sounds produced live by Ruud van der Pluijm meant everything was in sync, while the technical aspects produced by Saskia de Vries and Joris van Oosterhout just amplified the visual and emotional effects.

You will not enjoy KAMP but you will be educated, informed and entertained. You will wonder at how they did it, gasp at the effect that simple models of a tiny wooden elephant in a briefcase, a wedding gift, a menorah or photos can have on you. The contrasts between the events in the ovens and the celebrations of the soldiers, the joyous German music and the state of the people, or light and darkness, sleeping and movement, of life and death is so vivid, you almost forget what it is you’re looking at.

KAMP plays at the Samuel Beckett Theatre until October 4 at 7.30pm with a 3pm matinée on Sunday. It’s one hour long. You won’t regret it.

My thanks to Michelle and the cast for the opportunity to take photos, ask questions and just be there.