Collaborators (play)
Collaborators is a 2011 play by British screenwriter and dramatist John Hodge about the "surreal fantasy" of a relationship between two historical figures, Mikhail Bulgakov, the prominent Russian writer, and Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union. The play takes place from 1938 to 1940, when Stalin was implementing the Great Purge in which several million people were exiled, imprisoned, or executed. The play is Hodge's first, although he has had a long career as a screenwriter.[1]
The play received its première at the National Theatre, London, on 25 October 2011; Nicholas Hytner directed, with Alex Jennings as Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale as Stalin.[1] The production subsequently won the 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for the best new play produced in Britain.[2] The play has been published in the United Kingdom and in the U.S.[3][4]
Plot summary
The story takes place in Moscow in the years 1938 to 1940 and the drama centers around the apartment of Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife Yelena.
Bulgakov has just finished his play The Life of Monsieur de Molière which his friends acclaim a masterpiece. The night after the premiere, he is visited by two secret policemen from the
Historical context
The play is a fictional device to examine the conflict experienced by a writer who is trying to portray a recognizable depiction of the human condition in a tyrannical world which systematically represses such expression.[5]
Bulgakov did receive a phone call from Stalin out of the blue at an earlier stage in his career in 1930 in which he was favoured with a new post. He knew that the dictator admired his work and followed his output.
No formal collaboration between Stalin and Bulgakov existed but the figure of Stalin as a monster inside Bulgakov's mind existed, and this was reinforced physically through the NKVD.
Bulgakov did indeed write a play to order on the life of the young Stalin around the time depicted, entitled Batum, which is regarded by modern critics as stilted and shallow. The terror of the tyrant led him to produce a play on demand which might have been written by the dictator himself.
Bulgakov's play Molière: The Cabal of Hypocrites (1936), of which there are brief extracts within this play, examines the life of another author,
Critical reception
The original production received somewhat mixed reviews. Charles Spencer wrote for The Daily Telegraph, "This is a truly tremendous double act which thrills chills and makes you laugh out loud - even though you know you shouldn’t."[6] Michael Billington wrote for The Guardian, "the purpose of Hodge's satirical fantasia is clearly to suggest Bulgakov's obsession with Stalin is proof of the latter's ultimate triumph. ... While I may question Hodge's arguments, his play has a nightmarish vivacity well captured in Nicholas Hytner's freewheeling production on Bob Crowley's zig-zagging traverse stage."[1]
Live broadcast and US productions
On 1 December 2011, the original production was broadcast to cinemas around the world as a part of the National Theatre Live programme.[7]
In 2016, the play received new productions in New York City and in Washington, D.C.[8][9]
References
- ^ a b c Billington, Michael (2 November 2011). "Collaborators - review". The Guardian.
- ^ "Oliver Winners 2012". The Society of London Theatr.
- OCLC 823820120.
- OCLC 793580575.
- ^ a b c National Theatre London, performance programme. John Hodge's notes, May 2012
- ^ Spencer, Charles (2 November 2011). "Collaborators, National Theatre, review". The Telegraph.
- ^ Broadcast information. "Collaborators". National Theatre Live. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012.
- ^ Mandell, Jonathan (15 January 2016). "Collaborators Review: Would You Kill For Your Art?". New York Theater.
- ^ Wren, Celia (18 February 2016). "'Collaborators': Spooky Action Theater spins a semi-absurdist tale". The Washington Post.
Further reading
- "On NT production of 'Collaborators'". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 2016-03-13. Unsigned commentary about the play from the Russian Embassy in London.