30 of March: Russian version
31 of March: English version
Last year, the city of Salisbury became infamous for being the site of a showdown within the Russian secret service, involving the new poison N0VICHOK - a Russian word now firmly embedded in British reality. A year on, and the theatre world has not yet responded to this event. Viktor Shenderovich is a well-known anti-Putin satirist in Russia. He has written a funny and darkly surreal play that explores fake news, cultural identity and the fragile relationship between Britain and Russia. We are experimenting with creating two shows simultaneously: a Russian and a British version, with separate casts directed by Vladimir Shcherban. It is a great honour for us to introduce this new playwright to an English audience.
Victor Shenderovich
Although the impetus for this play came from real events, this is not a documentary. This is an imaginative response to the attempted Novichok poisoning in Salisbury last year which is in dialogue with Tom Stoppard rather than the BBC News. When I heard about Boshirov and Petrov, I found it impossible not to think of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, two guys also sent to England by their leader to kill... But in this play Boshirov and Petrov do not even suspect that they are murderers. They are shocked by the public accusations and their pictures in the media. They really are two closeted homosexuals who have come to England in secret to be together and see Salisbury Cathedral. The play begins realistically. But then time and space begin to fall apart. We meet our heroes on a train, on the run after they are declared killers. And by the end of the play they are roaming in the fog and cannot understand who they are. Another character is always in the shadows, following our heroes: Mother Russia. She is old, blind, misanthropic, paranoid and ready to start a nuclear war. The play, mixing theatre of the absurd and farce, end on the verge of apocalypse. Will our heroes discover their true identities in time?
Playwright: Victor Shenderovich
Director: Vladimir Shcherban
Producer: Irina Ioannesyan
31 of March: English version
Last year, the city of Salisbury became infamous for being the site of a showdown within the Russian secret service, involving the new poison N0VICHOK - a Russian word now firmly embedded in British reality. A year on, and the theatre world has not yet responded to this event. Viktor Shenderovich is a well-known anti-Putin satirist in Russia. He has written a funny and darkly surreal play that explores fake news, cultural identity and the fragile relationship between Britain and Russia. We are experimenting with creating two shows simultaneously: a Russian and a British version, with separate casts directed by Vladimir Shcherban. It is a great honour for us to introduce this new playwright to an English audience.
Victor Shenderovich
Although the impetus for this play came from real events, this is not a documentary. This is an imaginative response to the attempted Novichok poisoning in Salisbury last year which is in dialogue with Tom Stoppard rather than the BBC News. When I heard about Boshirov and Petrov, I found it impossible not to think of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, two guys also sent to England by their leader to kill... But in this play Boshirov and Petrov do not even suspect that they are murderers. They are shocked by the public accusations and their pictures in the media. They really are two closeted homosexuals who have come to England in secret to be together and see Salisbury Cathedral. The play begins realistically. But then time and space begin to fall apart. We meet our heroes on a train, on the run after they are declared killers. And by the end of the play they are roaming in the fog and cannot understand who they are. Another character is always in the shadows, following our heroes: Mother Russia. She is old, blind, misanthropic, paranoid and ready to start a nuclear war. The play, mixing theatre of the absurd and farce, end on the verge of apocalypse. Will our heroes discover their true identities in time?
Playwright: Victor Shenderovich
Director: Vladimir Shcherban
Producer: Irina Ioannesyan