A historical tragicomedy on the borders of fairy tale, centred on the personality of Joseph Stalin. A controversial and fateful figure of history, he was both one of the victors of the Second World War and a ruthless exterminator of his opponents. This play presents the final period of the Soviet leader’s rule (1924–1953) through the eyes of his children, the writer Ilya Ehrenburg, and others.
More existential than political, the work moves between past and present, childhood and psychological trauma, truth and falsehood, in one of the harshest and most complex eras of the 20th century. Its seasoned playwright and director, recipient of the Karolos Koun Prize for playwriting, also brings humour into play, in a production staged on the centenary of the birth of Dmitri Shostakovich — the great Russian composer and Stalin’s contemporary.
With English surtitles
