God on Trial

God on Trial is a 2008 BBCWGBH Boston television play written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, starring Antony Sher, Rupert Graves and Jack Shepherd. The play takes place in Auschwitz during World War II. The Jewish prisoners put God on trial in absentia for abandoning the Jewish people. The question is if God has broken his covenant with the Jewish people by allowing the Nazis to commit genocide.

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Sam Wollaston in The Guardian found it powerful and thoughtful stuff, with some fine performances by some fine actors Antony Sher, Rupert Graves, Dominic Cooper. Remarking that Boyce wrote the piece from a position of personal faith, James Walton in The Telegraph observed, Yet, as each of the characters put forward a different view on the question of God and suffering, it was clear that he was willing to interrogate his beliefs with real ferocity. This was a complex piece, and as the fierceness of the intellectual and emotional grip tightened, it was impossible to imagine any halfwaythoughtful viewers, of whatever prior convictions, not having a disturbing sense of their own ideas coming under sustained and convincing attack. In a long review for The Times, Tim Teeman had great praise for the cast The performances were so strong it felt a privilege to watch the actors, among them Antony Sher, Rupert Graves, Stephen Dillane and Jack Shepherd. He also praises director Andy de Emmonys brilliant, arresting sleight of hand... mixing the prisoners, naked and shorn, together with the presentday touring party in the gas chamber. For The Independent, Thomas Sutcliffe remarked on Shers role as the plays smouldering fuse Every now and then you saw Antony Sher, davening silently in a corner of the barracks. Like a loaded gun in a Chekhov play, you knew he was going to go off eventually and that it would be significant when he did, and indeed it was his explosive inventory of Gods biblically attested crimes that finally swung the judges in favour of a guilty verdict.Opposite fierce competition from the muchtrailed, eagerly awaited debut episode of ITVs fourparttime travel fantasy series, Lost in Austen, and an episode of the BBCs celebrity genealogy show, Who Do You Think You Are?, featuring Esther Rantzen, God on Trial attracted 700,000 viewers on BBC2, ashare of the audience, according to overnight returns. ........

Source: Wikipedia