Section:GDN 1N PaGe:22 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 6/9/2019 13:52 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
(^22) National
▼ Tom Brooke and MyAnna Buring
as the Litvinenkos, left, and Amanda
Hadingue as Lluba at the Old Vic
PHOTOGRAPH: MARC BRENNER
Theatre review
Kaleidoscopic retelling
of Litvinenko’s murder
Michael Billington
W
atching Lucy
Prebble ’s
fascinating
new play about
the murder
of Alexander
Litvinenko on British soil, I was
frequently reminded of her earlier
hit, Enron. Prebble once again
bases her play on fact, tells a
complex story with great clarity
and adopts a variety of techniques,
including direct address, puppetry
and song, to create a uniquely
theatrical spectacle.
Prebble openly acknowledges
her debt to Luke Harding’s book ofthe same name, which exposed the
astonishing details of the Litvinenko
case, but goes her own way about
recounting the story.
The fi rst half, largely seen
through the eyes of Litvinenko’s
wife, Marina, reminds us how this
former offi cer with Russia’s FSB
died in a London hospital in 2006,
poisoned by a radioactive isotope,
polonium-210. His off ence was to
have exposed the links between
organised crime and the Russian
government, which forced him and
his wife to fl ee to Britain.
Having meticulously explained
the background, Prebble then allows
Litvinenko’s former boss, Vladimir
Putin, to become the unreliable
narrator, whil e showing how two
Kremlin hitmen were d ispatched to
London to carry out the killing.
What is impressive about the
play is its kaleidoscopic variety of
tone. In part, it is the love story of
the Litvinenkos, capturing theircloseness, Marina’s occasional
criticism of her husband’s anti-Putin
tactics , and her determination that
the truth about his death be told
despite the evasiveness of the British
government.
But Prebble is unafraid to show
the black comedy behind a tragic
story. The hitmen are hapless
bumblers, one of them mislaying the
fountain pen containing the poison.
Even Putin becomes a smarmy
puppet master hiding his menace
under a mask of ingratiation.If the tone is constantly shifting,
so too is the style of John Crowley ’s
exemplary production. Tom Scutt ’s
design is a box containing locations
including a London hospital, a
Moscow fl at, and the hotel where
the poison was administered. But
it’s the theatricality of the piece that
constantly surprises: the history of
polonium is told through a shadow-
play fairy tale and the Russian
entrepreneur Boris Bere zovsky
bursts into song while dining in a
swanky Mayfair restaurant.
The play off ers a compelling
portrait of Russian corruption and
British vacillation and its multi-
faceted approach is anchored by
strong central performances.
MyAnna Buring ’s Marina
emerges as a woman of implacable
determination and ferocious loyalty.
Tom Brooke captures the complexity
of Litvinenko , whose moral zeal
is accompanied by a desire to
protect his family. There are fi ne
supporting performances from
Reece Shearsmith as Putin, Lloyd
Hutchinson and Michael Shaeff er
as the assassins, Peter Polycarpou
as Bere zovsky, and Thomas Arnold
as Marina’s legal ally. It’s an evening
that instructs as it entertains and
that leaves one appalled at Britain’s
initial reluctance to do anything that
might antagonise Moscow.Until 5 OctoberA Very Expensive Poison
Old Vic, London
★★★★☆Lucy Prebble’s
fascinating new play
off ers a compelling
portrait of Russian
corruption and
British vacillationRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws