NT Platforms: Stalin's Favourite

National Theatre Platforms

Stalin's Favourite, adapted and performed by Rupert Wickham

Fri 18 Nov, 5.30pm 

An emotionally engaging personal human insight into Stalin’s ‘favourite’ writer, Konstantin Simonov; adapted from Orlando Figes’ The Whisperers.

The Whisperers by Orlando Figes

From the award-winning author of A People's Tragedy and Natasha's Dance, a landmark account of what private life was like for Russians in the worst years of Soviet repression
 

There have been many accounts of the public aspects of Stalin's dictatorship: the arrests and trials, the enslavement and killing in the gulags. No previous book, however, has explored the regime's effect on people's personal lives, what one historian called "the Stalinism that entered into all of us." Now, drawing on a huge collection of newly discovered documents, The Whisperers reveals for the first time the inner world of ordinary Soviet citizens as they struggled to survive amidst the mistrust, fear, compromises, and betrayals that pervaded their existence.

 

Moving from the Revolution of 1917 to the death of Stalin and beyond, Orlando Figes re-creates the moral maze in which Russians found themselves, where one wrong turn could destroy a family or, perversely, end up saving it. He brings us inside cramped communal apartments, where minor squabbles could lead to fatal denunciations; he examines the Communist faithful, who often rationalized even their own arrest as a case of mistaken identity; and he casts a humanizing light on informers, demonstrating how, in a repressive system, anyone could easily become a collaborator.

A vast panoramic portrait of a society in which everyone spoke in whispers--whether to protect their families and friends, or to inform upon them--The Whisperers is a gripping account of lives lived in impossible times.

Orland Figes is a British historian of Russia, and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Tickets: £4 (£3 concessions)
Running time: 1hr 15mins

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=67676

New Soviet play: 'Collaborators' at National Theatre

Moscow, 1938. A dangerous place to have a sense of humour; even more so a sense of freedom. Mikhail Bulgakov, living among dissidents, stalked by secret police, has both. And then he’s offered a poisoned chalice: a commission to write a play about Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.


Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of the writer as he loses himself in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent subject of his drama.


Collaborators, a new play by John Hodge

4 STARS 'Dream casting of Alex Jennings as Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale as Stalin... A truly tremendous double act which thrills, chills and makes you laugh out loud - even though you know you shouldn't.' Daily Telegraph


4 STARS ‘Collaborators is fresh and energetic, with a thick, throbbing vein of grotesque humour.’ Evening Standard


4 STARS ‘Rare and special… An absurdly fantastic view of Stalin, and it’s seriously funny.’ The Times


All tickets for performances of Collaborators in the current season are Sold Out. Day Tickets at £12 will be available for every performance. The show will continue beyond 21 January. These performances will be available for sale, initially to NT Members, when the next booking season opens in November 2011.



National Theatre Live
Collaborators will be broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world on 1 December 2011 as part of National Theatre Live. Find your nearest cinema and book.
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=67505