Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Wiesenthal
NJNG Productions and Seabright Live
Genre: Solo Performance, Theatre
Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
It is the final day in Simon Wiesenthal’s employment at his own centre in Vienna. A man who survived the Holocaust and devoted his entire life thereafter to hunting down nazi criminals this is the last day of his service in pursuit of those aims as he promised his wife. The remarkable story not just of his own survival but also of his reuniting with his daughter and his wife who he thought had been lost in the Holocaust, is followed by the greatest hits of some of his involvement in tracking down 1,100 former members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party who had participated in the worst excesses of humanity in the 20th century.
Review
This is a play that sold out three years ago, had a London transfer and has been toured extensively. The company bring it to Edinburgh at a time when we are facing an increase in nazi style salutes and anger on the streets reminiscent of the way in which the 1930s felt.
This is seventy minutes of a life that is filled with stories that could individually make and have made Hollywood epic films. It could, however, do with being a little trimmed. Directed by Mark Liebert there is sensitivity, not just to the subject matter, but also the context of the ways in which we need to access this at a very important time. Tom Duggan’s script covers all of the bases. Wiesenthal is a legendary figure. He has appeared as he makes reference to on film but he was certainly somebody who during my lifetime has become legendary as the man in pursuit of righteous justice. The initial stories told by him are compelling and the hunt on his last day with the phoning to confirm an identity works as a structure, however I wanted more of the quests, the hunts and it may be the fact we are used to the fraiming of real crime as entertainment that drives that rather than an appreciation of the work. I understand hat, but I felt we had scratched a surface.
This solo performance by Christopher C Gibbs is a very believable, nuanced and exceptional performance. It is not just an ability to call Wiesenthal to the room as a character, but to portray the concern, determination and frailty of him.
At one point in the performance a phone went off and then somebody also left for whatever reason and there was a momentary lapse as Gibbs the performer emerged to scowl.
Technically it manages to inhabit this small space with a decent set and lighting which worked well, ending with the spotlight on the one single sunflower in the corner which he had said he was taking home with him, but left. It was poignant and suggested that the work was still unfinished.
Wiesenthal has an incredibly important subject matter. It reminds me as someone once said, that the Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, it began with whispers and comments hidden under the breath. And so, the justice to be given out does not end with the discovery of the crime but finding those who should be punished and following through. What Wiesenthal did was he collected all the whispers he could in order to scream at people that these people should be brought to justice. A lot of screaming is going on just now and let’s hope we get back to the point where we whisper our point of view in reverence rather than scream it in anger.
