Patriots, Noel Coward Theatre, London
Putin walks into a bar. There are a whole host of real life Russian characters there including Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Abramovich. But it’s when Alexander Litvinenko shows up that the hairs will stand up on the back of your neck…
In a James Graham style, Peter Morgan’s energetic play looks at how Russia got to where it is today and why Putin is as he is. Using Boris Berezovsky as his lens, he tracks the rise of this mathematician to Glasnost businessman and media mogul, who thinks Putin will be his grateful puppet and do as he’s told, when he’s told to.
As we know, this is not the case. Alongside Boris Berezovksy is ethical family man Alexander Litvinenko and his wife, who start to take a stance against Putin, as he seeks to control his ministers, business sponsors and oligarchs, the media and more. Boris flees to the UK (thinking he’s won — has evaded media and Putin’s control, kept his integrity and survived with his assets intact); but ultimately longs to be back in the fold — can individuals stand against corruption and corrupt rulers? Boris thinks he’s playing to win — but will he?
Tom Hollander keeps the pace and energy flowing as Berezovsky (he evens sings!) His incredulity at his ‘creation’ turning on him is Mary Shelley-esque in his disbelief. Will Keen is a banal and boring Putin, yet chillingly nasty — even down to the bandy-legged walk. He becomes even more terrifying once he has achieved power by suddenly launching into an angry bellow and when Boris and Putin pass each other in the corridors of power. But for me, Alexander Litvinenko is the heart of the play, as is Boris’s Maths professor. These characters keep their integrity as all shatters about them. We also see the increasing stress of characters as Putin and his regime start to turn on them and declare them no longer patriots but enemies of the state…
Boris juggling phone calls whilst dismissing his visiting son is a moment and all the business of Russia in conducted in and around a crosss-shaped stage, part catwalk, part seedy bar and nightclub. Characters do walk on and off a lot which can make the play flag a little — but when they are on the sidelines nursing a drink, then they come into their own. Reveling in success and his own success, has Boris learnt anything — or do he beg to return to power even though that centre of power is immoral and corrupt. (Such as the painful handling of the trapped submariners in Kursk).
Beyond Berezovksy’s and Abramovich’s ugly legal fight in court, which left Berezovksy bereft of influence, funds and isolated from the power centre he craved, and Litvinenko’s panicked phone calls about the rapidly declining health of her husband, we don’t see much of their lives in the UK. Given the current war by Russia against the Ukraine in so many horrific war (and indeed the world), more could have been said about the Russian oligarchs in the UK and indeed Russian diaspora around the world. Sides have to be chosen — where, the play gets us to speculate, will Berezovsky end up?
- Warning if you sit in the front row you may get showered with cash!*
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