“In this room everyone learns the truth. And neither of us will be quite the same when we leave.”
Paris, 1940s. The German-occupied city is in a state of turmoil – a plague ravages the streets, turning people into deformed monsters.
The city’s finest hotel is under siege. SS interrogator Grau has come here to find out the truth. Grau has one night to cure the plague and to unmask the mysterious Madame Berber and who she’s really working for. Herr Grau knows all about Project Hermod. And now he’s going to find out all about Torchwood.
TORCHWOOD: THE DYING ROOM
Big Finish’s monthly Torchwood releases are among the best work the company is currently doing, and for the final story in the third series, they secured a major casting coup: Simon Russell Beale, widely considered among the greatest stage actors of his generation. He stars in “The Dying Room,” by Lizzie Hopley, one of the “historical Torchwood” stories the range has been attempting recently. And while everything about the story is extremely well done, it’s still underwhelming for how ordinary it is.
This is a down-the-line World War II noir story set in Nazi-occupied Paris. We have a beautiful woman, Mme. Berber (Emma Cunniffe), with mysterious motives. We have the Nazi investigator, Herr Grau (Mark Elstob), on her trail. And we have M. LeDuc (Beale), the innocent theology professor traveling with his son Gabriel (Aly Cruickshank), caught in the crossfire. There are betrayals and surprises along with painful interrogations. Hopley’s script is a great example of this sort of story, striking all the right notes – but the problem is that if you have any familiarity at all with this genre, you’ll know exactly where it’s going. If it seems odd to you that they would hire Simon Russell Beale, put him on the cover in a dashing outfit looming over the word Torchwood, and then cast him as a theology professor, well… yes, that would indeed be odd.
LeDuc is a fantastic character. He’s driven and resilient, yet he still responds in a vulnerable, human way to torture. His relationships are written carefully and believably. Beale chooses to underplay the role in quiet, soft-spoken fashion, which makes it all the more effective when the steely side of LeDuc’s personality comes to the fore. Unfortunately, Grau and Berber are ciphers – Grau is the traditional “polite Nazi” concealing a cruel, vicious personality, while Berber is the sort of femme fatale you’d expect in a spy movie. Gabriel appears to be a fascinating character, but we are only given brief encounters with him, something that frustrates more than it rewards. The performances, across the board, are very good – Elstob is terrifying, while Cunniffe and Beale have very good chemistry.
The production is equally strong. Director Scott Handcock and sound designer Howard Carter produce an utterly believable Paris while even the more overt sci-fi elements sound convincing. You may have noticed this is my first mention of the sci-fi elements; this is because they take a back seat to the historical drama, something that plays to the story’s strengths. Overall, “The Dying Room” is flawless in the literal sense – I can’t find a thing wrong with it. But it feels unrewarding, as though I’ve encountered it before. Given some of the raw, emotional, and often innovative ground other Torchwood releases have covered, I find it disappointing to get Simon Russell Beale and then use him in something this familiar. It’s still recommended – highly, even – but I wish there had been more to it.
8/10