‘Look around you – there are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn’t make use of the opportunity to ask him questions. And the less you talk, the more you’ll hear.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago.
Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union, especially its totalitarianism. He instigated global awareness of its gulag forced labor camps. In the West, he published many books most notably One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (adapted for the screen in 1969/70 starring Tom Courtney), Cancer Ward, August 1914 and The Gulag Archipelago. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974 later returning in 1994. The Gulag jumped off the shelves when first published by Fontana paperbacks in Australia back in 1974 but was still suppressed in the Soviet Union until 1989.
This production of Destroy Solzhenitsyn by Nice Productions, showing now as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, was penned by the internationally renowned playwright and visual artist John Joofor Lee.
Russian history is certainly filled with stifling moments and this play brings this reality to the forefront. With stilted, one-dimensional performances, a poor script that resembles an essay or radio play rather than drama, it appears the Russian people are still suffering more than we know, only it’s theatre that’s now in trouble.
Solzhenitsyn is certainly an inspiring figure with much to draw on for a compelling biography or character study. Instead, we have a didactic text that seems more concerned with endlessly preaching that communism/capitalism is bad rather than with character motivation, structure or even plot. Despite being overloaded with weighty exposition, it fails to shed any light on Solzhenitsyn’s character. Was his relationship with his two wives really just that one betrayed him and the other supported him? Surely there was much more complexity to it than this. Why was he such a threat to America by only one speech? These and other questions are frustratingly left hanging in the air as the text fails to pay off what it sets up in the first few scenes.
All praise must be given to the cast for their perseverance with Lee’s script – each and every one forge on with what they have. They all seem restricted and stifled, moving around the space self-consciously. It appeared more like a dress rehearsal than an opening performance. The talented director and actor Vlady T. who directed the highly successful King in Exile, passionately attempts to elevate the production beyond its limitation and sometimes succeeds, but the material is not dramatic enough to find any foundation for his usually fertile and sometimes quirky imagination.
Actress Nichola Jayne as Alya injects her character with a controlled rage that drives her performance well – here is a very fine actress once again limited by the restraints. Chris Savva gives a natural, promising, if slightly stilted performance as Roy, who is one of many who try to silence Solzhenitsyn after a Harvard speech criticizing capitalism goes awry. Connor Bashford, another good performer, also looked ill at ease. The Russian accents were ​unconvincing. And lead actor Andy Barons struggled with the uneveniable and admirable task of ‘playing’ Solzhenitsyn – his lecturing to the audience (which was mostly delivered to the audience) became sermon-like, patronizing and monotonous.
This production embraces it’s limitations, working from what seems to be a micro budget and streamlines the set well without any unnecessary cluttering of the stage or the story. The costumes were poorly executed, and the projected images from the Russian famine, etc. (with sometimes horrific images akin to the holocaust), illuminated the world from which Solzhenitsyn was fleeing. The changes of scenes were clumsy and broke the fluidity of the piece especially when no authentic music or images were provided. Strangely, some changes were covered and others not. The music definitely lifted the feel of the play, but it was irregular.
It is really not enough to read a biography or two and expect to know your subject well enough to dramatize them. What are their fears? Dreams? Desires? What does it motivate them to do (not just say!). But most of all – do an audience want to see a play about Solzhenitsyn or is it just a specialized taste? Nice Productions have a growing reputation for interesting theatre, they deserve good plays, sadly, this is not one of them. Nevertheless, this is a production that can only grow and improve as the season progresses. But until the aforementioned questions can be answered by the playwright, he has left the production on thin ice.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Writer John Joofor Lee
Director Vlady T.
Performed by Andy Barons, Connor Bashford, Madison Montepaone, Nichola Jayne, Laura Peach, Giovanni Piccolo and Chris Savva
Melbourne Fringe Festival 2015
The Clover Club (Studio Theatre), Gasworks Arts Park
21 Graham Street, Albert Park 3206
22 September – 03 October 2015 8:30pm
