Newsletter January 2004

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British Premiere at Birmingham School of Speech and Drama

The play did seem to reflect the realities of life in Russia, and some of the situations would have been lost on some of the audience (residence permits, for example). The scene changes were not always clear enough to tell me whose flat they were in, or if they were outdoors. But the real problem was that almost every member of the cast smoked almost non-stop in an unventilated room”. This caused such a problem for Nicholas that he had to leave early.

On the positive side, Nicholas comments that “The acting was very good, and I am sure that we will see these students on stage before a wider audience for many years.”

Stella Sims comments “I'd just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it!! I thought the acting, staging and music were all excellent, appropriate and enhancing in that order. The overall atmosphere, in relation to my experience of Russia, was understandably 'edgy', negative and sparse- giving a rather depressing but authentic view of lives which were so fundamentally unsatisfactory. The whole play 'hung together' admirably without unnecessary and boringly standard scene changes which would have broken up the flow and rhythm of the piece. The plight of the characters was matched by the effectiveness of both the casting and acting in what was, inevitably a limited set and space. As a fervent non-smoker, I would have welcomed a warning about the smoking of certain characters - and its proximity to the front row where I was sitting. It certainly did prove uncomfortable but I felt able to accept the need for realism without leaving on account of the physical atmosphere. The play was too interesting and stimulating for me to resort to that!!