14 March 2007

Dying For It by Moira Buffini(a free adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide)

Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov - Tom Brooke
Maria Lukianovna 'Masha' - Liz White
Serafima Ilyinichna - Susan Brown
Alexander Petrovick Kalabushkin - Barnaby Kay
Margarita Ivanova Peryesvetova - Sophie Stanton
Yegor Timoveivich - Paul Rider
Aristarkh Domincovich Grand Subik - Ronon Vibert
Kleopatra Maximovna 'Kiki' - Michelle Dockery
Father Yelpidy - Tony Rohr
Viktor Viktorovich - Chalrie Condou
Stepan Vasilievich - Dominic Chares-Rouse
Oleg Leonidovich - Gil Cohen-Alloro

Directed by Anna Mackmin
Designed by Lez Brotherston

In it's debut run at the Almeida


Wow - I'm certainly getting my fair share of farces at the moment. This is a farce of suicide instead of love, of politics instead of infidelity.

I can't help wondering if some of the names are a joke in their home country. I think they are part of the humour somehow.

Michelle Dockery was really glorious. Some nicely measured performances. I felt a bit sorry for Liz White because her character doesn't take much of a journey and she has to be fairly miserable most of the time. Given without vanity though and within the ensemble it made great comedy.