Theatre Royal Haymarket – until 20 May
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
The Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg’s acclaimed production of Life and Fate is extraordinary. Truth be told, the first half hour feels as long as the three years they spent rehearsing the play, but once the groundwork has been laid, and all characters introduced, the pace quickens and the investment in the characters pays off.
Vasily Grossman’s weighty novel has been adapted by director Lev Dodin, retaining the feel of the series of vignettes onstage with characters from different locations intermingling and watching the action unfold. The stage is dominated by a volleyball net, doubling as the wire fence of the various camps and eerily lit to great effect as prisoners march behind it.
Jewish scientist Viktor Shtrum returns to Moscow with his wife and daughter, but his work and life are threatened as Stalin’s orders force Jewish academics out of their jobs. Luckily for Shtrum, Stalin hears of his work and needs him for the nuclear program. As Shtrum and his family breath a sigh of relief, his wife and her sister Zhenya’s exes are political prisoners in a Siberian Gulag, while Shtrum’s mother writes to him from a Jewish ghetto. Her ex-lover is in a Nazi concentration camp, while Zhenya is having an affair with Russian tank commander Colonel Novikov.
The prisoners discuss philosophy and political ideology, culminating in the old Bolshevik horrified by an SS officer’s insistence that their political beliefs are not so dissimilar, while Shtrum rails against compromising and selling out to Stalin to ensure his family’s safety. Every male character is a fanatic for his own flawed cause, be it Communism, Nazism or academia, with the women, especially Anna, Shtrum’s mother being the heart and conscience of the play. There are moments of surreal humour, especially from Colonel Novikov at the Battle of Stalingrad, but the brutality of Stalin’s regime is all-pervading.
The cast are exceptional, with a classic and contained style that portrays the suspicion of the time brilliantly, and the use of music and dance is both uplifting and tear-jerking. At almost 3½ hours, Life and Fate is an overwhelming experience, but this passionate and haunting production is unforgettable, and disturbingly relevant today.