Boris Godunov
A Chekhov International Festival Production in association with Cheek by Jowl
Boris Godunov
By Alexander Pushkin
Directed by Declan Donnellan
Designed by Nick Ormerod and Judith Greenwood
The Lowry, Tue 29 April – Sat 3 May 2008
Press night: Tue 29 April, 7pm
An exposé of the seductive appeal of power and the terrible price that must be paid for it is set to grip audiences, when Cheek by Jowl present their exhilarating revival of Boris Godunov.
Money, corruption, sex and blood thicken this sinuous and radical work which was originally banned by censors.
And this telling revival of a story of Russian power struggles has given it a chilling modern relevance. Power struggles in Moscow and trouble on the border allied to television news bulletins gives the production a contemporary spin and shows that even though Pushkin’s epic was written in 1825 it has much to say about the modern world.
Performed on a traverse stage stretching out into the audience, the power of the production is brought home by a top-notch Russian cast, aided by surtitles.
The cast includes some of Russia’s greatest actors including Irina Grineva, Igor Yasulovitch, Alexander Feklistov and Evgeny Mironov.
Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod formed Cheek by Jowl in 1981. The company's manifesto was to re-examine classical texts, avoiding directorial and design concepts, and to focus on the actor's art. Its first production to tour was Wycherley's The Country Wife presented at the Edinburgh Festival and supported by a small Arts Council grant. Since then over half the company’s plays have received Olivier awards.
Born in Moscow, Pushkin was a Russian Romantic author who is considered to be the greatest Russian and the founder of modern Russian literature. He created a style of storytelling—mixing drama, romance, and satire—associated with Russian literature ever since and greatly influencing later Russian writers. Performed in Russian with English surtitles.
Posted on Thursday, 10 April 2008 under Press Theatre Press