Theatre

Dying For It
Until Apr 28 2007
- New
This event has finished
Almeida Theatre, Almeida St, N1 1TA
Rating:
By Jane Edwardes

Posted: Mon Mar 19 2007
Nikolai Erdman’s 1930 Russian play – usually known as ‘The Suicide’ – wasn’t seen in its home country until 1982, three years after it was premiered by the RSC in England. Stalin didn’t appreciate the suggestion that anyone might choose death over living in the Soviet Union. In a grime-infested, over-populated apartment block – Lez Brotherston’s set ingeniously creates the illusion of several floors – shock-headed Semyon is unemployed and feels humiliated by his hardworking wife and mercenary mother-in-law. He thinks his fortunes will be transformed by learning to play the tuba until he gets to the bit in the manual which says he has to buy a piano first. So he decides to commit suicide instead and finds himself visited by a host of people who offer him money to die on their behalf and hold a wild party to celebrate his forthcoming end. But will Semyon ever be able to pull the trigger?

It was an inspired move to ask Moira Buffini to create an English version of Erdman’s satire. She drives the play along with a raucous vitality and provides a brilliant Tom Brooke with all he needs to capture the many facets of Semyon from his whingeing self-pity –’ I am a maggot’ – and his love of black sausage to the would-be superman who longs to rise to the occasion. Heroic moments are constantly undermined in Anna Mackmin’s joyous production. The off-stage moans of Barnaby Kay’s Alexander are not, as supposed, provoked by grief for the death of his spouse but rather by the allure of Sophie Stanton’s Margarita. Alexander reminds Semyon that life is beautiful by pointing at a window so filthy nothing can be seen outside. Aristarkh is restrained from killing Semyon by the bucket of slops that Margarita holds over his head. It’s a gloriously frenzied evening, performed by actors who enter wholeheartedly into the spirit of the play as if they’d been drinking vodka from birth.