Last Updated on February 13, 2026
Gripping documentary-style theatre unpacks Nazi photo album revelations
Not just a casual bucolic scene, the title Here There Are Blueberries is a translated caption from a genuine Nazi photo album: Hier gibt es Blaubeeren. The grainy black and white snap depicted a picnic of SS officers and female Helferinnen support staff relaxing at a chalet near Auschwitz, merrily eating pots of blueberries in the sunshine. Examining this disturbing disconnection, of leisure alongside genocide, is the premise of New York’s Tectonic Theatre’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated production now premiering in the UK at Stratford East.
Led by director and co-writer Moisés Kaufman (best known for The Laramie Project), himself the son of a Holocaust survivor, Here There Are Blueberries opens with a context-framing explanation of portable photography’s appeal to citizens of the Third Reich. No longer restrained by bulky equipment, hand-held cameras – such as those manufactured by Leica – granted Germans an affordable hobby in which they could depict themselves enjoying perfect holidays and leisure time; a feeling resonant with contemporary selfies and idealistic social media curation.
The Nazi photo album featuring the blueberries scene was the subject of real-life global press attention after being donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In developing Here There Are Blueberries, Kaufman spent three days meeting with Holocaust archivist Rebecca Erbelding, discussing what these apparently everyday scenes demanded of us as viewers.
The play, in keeping with Tectonic’s methods to “create theatrical spaces for investigation”, is akin to watching a documentary; the first half is a forensic inquiry into who assembled the album and why. Potentially, with many performances being recreations of witness testimonies and professional discussions on ethics between museum staff, this show could be very dry. And yet it isn’t – I was gripped from start to finish, the pace is sure-footed with plenty of movement on stage to engage the viewer and a clear narrative arc. The TV-style examination of evidence also reminded me of the podcast-style crime drama Kenrex, which I reviewed late last year; another example of writers echoing on stage the manner in which listeners/viewers like to be entertained off it.
Derek McLane’s set (West End credits: MJ and Moulin Rouge) mirrors the monochromatic images; with little colour onstage, frequent shuffling of stage props and spotlighting prevent scenes from ever being dull.
The historic images themselves (projection design by David Bengali, Broadway credit Goodnight and Good Luck) are large enough, and on screen long enough to feel you’re examining the album first hand.
Initially, they form a curious banality-of-evil photo journal collated by a seemingly ordinary guy whose co-workers just happen to be Nazis, but the production forensically unveils their proof of culpability in the war crimes occurring out of shot.
Philippine Velge (theatre credit – Macbeth, Shakespeare’s Globe) is at the forefront as Rebecca Erbelding, measured and precise as if solving a puzzle. But it’s her performance later on, as Holocaust survivor Lucy Jacob, that brings Here There Are Blueberries to an emotional climax. Lucy, who describes her discovery of a contrasting album, filled instead with damning scenes of the prisoners, as “her destiny”, is the emotional and moral counterweight to the SS officer’s idyllic keepsake.
Clifford Samuel, recently seen at Stratford East in Tambo & Bones, has a warm, relatable presence across multiple roles, notably Tilman Taube, a descendant confronting his grandfather’s Nazi officer past. Arthur Wilson (theatre credit RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing) brings a harsher mood, delivering a set-piece monologue on inherited guilt. Although this lands less deftly than Velge’s turn, the line “if I believe it is in my blood, I believe what the Nazi’s believed”, hits hard, as does Velge’s line about “the frontier of good and evil” being able to “run down the middle” of any of us.
Geraldine Alexander (TV credit, Bridgerton) brings authoritative calmness as museum colleague Judy Cohen, articulating the institution’s careful decision how – and whether – to display these artefacts.
The glossy programme includes an interesting excerpt from an essay,’Photographing the Reich’, complete with quotes from Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. The excerpt signs off with “What do those behind and in front of the camera want me to see?” – a central dilemma for audiences watching Here There Are Blueberries.
Initially, the play presents the album’s subjects neutrally, guided by what’s in the frame. The narrative is set up as a mystery surrounding album-maker Karl Höcker, although he was already well known to historians, having been tried twice for war crimes – an example of how the play uses artistic license that slightly overplays the detective story. Equally, mealy-mouthed testimonies from Helferinnen witnesses, claiming to be mere messengers, firmly predate the album’s discovery.
Appropriately, for a play that throws up so many questions, Stratford East are also hosting post-show talks curated by FASPE (Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics), free to ticket holders and befitting Tectonic’s mission to create spaces for ethical reflection. The show lasts 90 minutes (no interval), which is long enough to satisfy audiences not attending on evenings with post-show talks, and not too late a finishing time for those who are.
Here There Are Blueberries dextrously handles a deeply sensitive topic that’s not obvious theatre entertainment. The matter-of-fact delivery is more aligned to the recent Jonathan Glazer movie, The Zone of Interest (which overlaps slightly), than a narrative such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Here There Are Blueberries‘ documentary format feels fresh onstage and brings a new angle to a subject horribly relevant. In our image-obsessed age of social media curation, the on-stage statement towards the show’s conclusion, that genocide begins with words and pictures rather than killing, feels disturbingly current. It feels wrong to say I “enjoyed” it, but I was entirely riveted and would highly recommend seeing it.
Here There Are Blueberries
Stratford East
Gerry Raffles Square
London E15 1BN
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