Collaborators
by John Hodge
2020-12-29 22:46:40
This âgripping, disturbing, and often blackly comic dramaâ explores the historic connection between Stalin and Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (The Daily Telegraph, UK). A ârare and specialâ play by the screenwriter of Trainspotti...
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This âgripping, disturbing, and often blackly comic dramaâ explores the historic connection between Stalin and Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (The Daily Telegraph, UK). A ârare and specialâ play by the screenwriter of Trainspotting and Shallow Grave, Collaborators is inspired by the true story of another play: one that Mikhail Bulgakov was forced to write in commemoration Joseph Stalinâs sixtieth birthday (The Times, UK). Moscow, 1938. Stalin has been in power for sixteen years and his purges are underway. Bulgakovâs The Master and Margarita is lying unpublished in a desk drawer, and his latest play Molière has been banned following terrible reviews in Pravda. As a secret policeman dryly puts it, this has opened up a convenient âgap in his schedule.â This âgapâ is to be filled by writing a play about Stalinâs life. As Bulgakov loses himself in a world of secrets, threats, and paradoxes, he begins to fall ill from kidney disease. His feverish dreams of conversations with Stalin become reality in his mind, just as the stateâs lies become truths in his play. Collaborators is a darkly comic portrait of the impossible choices facing an artist living under dictatorship, and a surreal journey into the imagination of a writer as he loses himself in the subject of his drama. Winner of the 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards Best New Play
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