The Pink List, King’s Head Theatre Review
Written by Charlotte for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own.
Following several runs of his debut show at the Edinburgh and Brighton Fringe, Michael Trauffer is back with a companion piece to his Fabulett 1933, this time set in post-war Germany. The Pink List is another one-man musical, hosted by Karl Hellwig, a concentration camp survivor persecuted and tried a decade after his liberation for the same ‘offense’ as the Nazis imprisoned him for: homosexuality.
As with Trauffer’s first show, The Pink List is exceptionally well-researched. The depth and specificity of the history behind the show’s fictionalised protagonist is impressive, to say the least. It is abundantly clear that Trauffer is well educated in this period and its stories, carrying that mountain of knowledge with him on-stage. Yet with that breadth of knowledge comes a tendency to spend a significant portion of the show delivering factually dense asides to the audience. As interesting and upsetting as the history may be, relying on these near lecture-style asides to contextualise the moments of story and song undermines the dramatic and emotional resonance of the piece. It feels as much like a research report as it performs. An astute report, to be sure, but a report nonetheless.
Serving as the creator, composer, and sole performer, Trauffer certainly puts his heart into his work. Unfortunately, the lack of more collaborators may prove to be a critical weakness for the piece. Despite the true dedication from Trauffer, the piece is robbed of much of its impact by the generic feeling of its central character’s story. In attempting to cover a lifetime of injustice and contextualise the world around it in a 60-minute, one-man musical, The Pink List is forced to jump so swiftly from one beat to the next that there’s little room to develop Karl’s character outside of the very thing his oppressors define him by. It’s hard to see him as much more than a case study.
The show’s short and patchy melodies don’t do much to expand the narrative either. While Fabulett 1933 was an easier sell as a musical given its cabaret club setting, The Pink List struggles to shoehorn its rather underdeveloped songs in between lengthy monologues, resulting in a general disjointedness between the music and the story.
It’s worth noting that Fabulett 1933 has had a lengthy life to fine tune its structure at this point, while The Pink List is in its infancy having just premiered. While it may have a long road of refinement ahead, there is hope that it could settle into a worthy and expansive companion to Fabulett. Indeed, perhaps one of the best received moments of the performance was Karl’s cheeky self-referential nod to the Fabulett club and its illustrious emcee. Trauffer’s construction of a shared world for his historical works presents exciting possibilities for future projects and adds a unique and engaging throughline that helps pick up some of the intrigue that The Pink List’s troubled structure drops.
In spite of its disappointing premiere, Trauffer remains an artist to keep an eye on. While I believe he would benefit from expanding his practice to other forms and collaborators, his knowledge of and devotion to the stories he tells are nonetheless deeply admirable.
At King’s Head Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe.
☆ ☆ ☆
