National Theatre Live: Good

Set against the gathering storm of the Second World War, National Theatre Live: Good (2023) follows John Halder, a thoughtful, principled German professor whose life slowly unravels as he is lured into a political movement whose consequences he cannot foresee. The filmed stage production captures his chilling moral drift with clarity and urgency, tracing how rationalizations, personal ambitions, and moments of denial transform an ordinary man into an unwilling architect of harm.

At once intimate and unflinching, the piece interrogates ideas of goodness, responsibility, and complicity, asking how small choices add up to catastrophic outcomes. The power of the performances and the stark theatrical direction make this a searing exploration of conscience and the dangerous ease with which decent lives can be co-opted by extremist forces—an uncomfortably relevant cautionary tale for our times.