The White Factory Review: Unmasking the Shadows of Survival During World War II
Dmitry Glukhovsky’s powerful debut play explores moral compromise and inherited trauma, with chilling echoes in the present day.
Dmitry Glukhovsky’s debut play, The White Factory, receives its world premiere at the Marylebone Theatre in London. Directed by Maxim Didenko, the production runs until 4 November. Glukhovsky, best known for his dystopian Metro novels and outspoken criticism of Vladimir Putin, has been sentenced in absentia by a Russian court to eight years in prison for allegedly “discrediting the Russian armed forces”.
Set in the Łódź Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, the play follows Yosef Kauffman, a principled Jewish lawyer caught in the moral quicksand of survival. His fictional family’s fate becomes entwined with real historical figures, including Chaim Rumkowski, the controversial head of the ghetto’s Jewish Council, and Wilhelm Koppe, an SS commander implicated in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
The first act details the brutal logic of ghetto survival: the hope that productivity might stave off extermination. The White Factory itself, repurposed from a church to produce feather-stuffed pillows, becomes a bitterly ironic symbol of this desperate strategy.
Dmitry Glukhovsky’s compelling play blends historical and fictional characters, shedding light on the Holocaust’s tragic past. Adrian Schiller’s nuanced portrayal of Rumkowski avoids heroism or villainy, revealing the desperation of a man negotiating with madmen. Mark Quarterly delivers a powerful performance as Yousef Kaufman, a Jewish lawyer confronting discrimination as World War II looms. His determination to escape Poland with his family is thwarted, leaving them trapped in a new, oppressive reality. James Garnon’s chilling rendition of Wilhelm Koppe, the local Nazi Commander, exudes malevolence through unsettling stillness. Matthew Spencer adds a brutish terror as Mordhke, Koppe’s right-hand man. In a scene of profound gravitas and chilling authenticity, the exchange between Koppe and Rumkovski unfolds as the SS officer exerts relentless pressure on Rumkowski to consign young workers, namely children, to their tragic fate.
Maxim Didenko’s stark direction, enhanced by Galya Solodovnikova’s clinical white-box set, deploys live video and projections to disturbing effect. Whether it’s a family home, a Nazi office or a gas chamber, the stage is never far from violence. This visual coldness amplifies the moral ambiguity at the play’s core.
This is a sombre, unsettling work that raises difficult questions about complicity, survival and collective memory. In a time of rising authoritarianism and revisionist histories, The White Factory offers more than historical reflection — it becomes a mirror to the present.
Elena Leo is the Arts & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
