The cultural and political turbulence of Weimar Germany seemed to threaten catastrophe and the possibility of paradise or, to use the Greek word for paradise, Elysium.
The musical Fury and Elysium conjures up the period through six radical women and a musical score whose rhythms seem to echo Kurt Weill and the musical Cabaret. The name of each individual’s particular fame is scrawled on their clothes; for instance, one wears the word Dada, another Writer and a third Socialist.
On a minimal set, each of the six will sing a song. The music is always pleasant, particularly the harmonies, and you may even find yourself later humming to yourself the song “Lavender Dreams” that begins and ends the show, though the actual final moments are a darkening visual indication of the horror to come.
In very brief scenes, we glimpse a little of each of their stories. The words of the socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg (Michal Horowicz) in 1919 will open and close the drama. She is followed by the contrasting statements of the dancer and Dada enthusiast Valeska Gert (Rosie Yadid), who tells us Dada isn’t political before mentioning the fight against the corruption of the State.
Claire Waldoff (Ashley Goh), a drag King, and Anita Berber (Charlotte Clitherow covering the role for Iz Hesketh on press night) are also dancers.
The politics of Kitty Shmidt (Danielle Steers) seem pragmatic and personal. She runs a brothel that was to become a very useful place for the Nazis to gain information on very senior people. Given many of the women working there are widows, we might guess that financial difficulties could be their motivation.
Gabriele Terget (Maya Kristal Tenenbaum) is a writer keen on reporting what is really happening rather than what is convenient. Like Rosa and Valeska, who are also from a Jewish background, she increasingly suffers the racism that was to terrorise the country.
Although all their stories could be exciting, we don’t get enough to engage with any particular character or even quite work out their transgressive journey. Instead, the most memorable scenes come from children observing some Jewish people being carted off by the authorities and wondering if they should have done anything.
Gabriele, who wrote criticisms of the Nazis, was forced to escape to London. When Valeska was banned from German theatre because of her religion, she also left, first for London and then on to America.
Rosa, who was murdered in 1919 by the Freikorps, who were later to become a strong force among the Nazis, concludes the show with the words, “before a revolution happens, it is perceived as impossible; after it happens, it is seen as having been inevitable.”