Details

Adapted from Nikolai Erdman's satirical comedy The Suicide. Dying For It centres on Semyon, unemployed, living in the hallway and watching his wife Masha slave all the hours God sends. When his last hope to earn a crust and gain some self-respect disappears, he decides to take his own life. Word gets out of his intention and he finds himself inundated with visitors begging him to die on their behalf. On the night he is to shoot himself they hold a party, at which point events spiral to a glorious climax. Erdman's The Suicide, written in 1928 five years after Stalin took control of the Soviet Union's Communist Party, was an early example of an artistic work coming under the increasingly unforgiving gaze of the Stalinist censor. The play was banned in 1932, before it had even been performed in public - it was not seen in the Soviet Union until 1982.

Cast/Performers

Tom Brooke (Semyon), Dominic Charles-Rouse (Stepan Vasilievich), Susan Brown (Serafima), Charlie Condou (Viktor), Michelle Dockery (Kleopatra), Barnaby Kay (Alexander), Paul Rider (Yegor), Tony Rohr (Father Yelpidy), Sophie Stanton (Margarita), Ronan Vibert (Aristarch), Liz White (Masha), Gil Cohen-Alloro, Stephen Warbeck

Creatives/Company

Author: Moira Buffini
Corporate Sponsor: Coutts and Co
Producer: Almeida Theatre
Director: Anna Mackmin
Design: Lez Brotherston
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: John Leonard
Choreographer: Scarlett Mackmin