This new play is based on the last words of women accused and convicted of political crimes in Russia. The show will open in London this Autumn for a limited season.
The Last Word production image. Photo by Ute Langkafel.
Directed by Maxim Didenko (The White Factory), The Last Word will premiere at the Marylebone Theatre on 5 September.
This searing multimedia performance is based on an idea by acclaimed actor Alisa Khazanova (The Woman in Black) who performs the play with Valentin Tszin. The production explores how these powerful, outspoken messages from the courtroom form one of the last surviving bastions of free speech imaginable in contemporary Russia.
The Last Word was first performed in Berlin in December 2022 and brings together the ‘last words’ of defendants Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of punk band Pussy Riot; Alla Gutnikova, the editor of student magazine Doxa; Zarifa Sautieva former museum director and political activist; artists Sasha Skochilenko and Yulia Tsvetkova; and activists Anastasia Shevchenko and Yulia Galyamina. Using their final statements, the play also uses poems and excerpts from the memoirs of human rights activist and poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya and International Booker Prize nominee and Brücke Berlin winner Maria Stepanova.
The Last Word shines a light on their courage, painting a timely and devastating picture of Russia's current regime. The show will run at the Marylebone Theatre from 5 - 21 September 2024.
