It is with surprise and regret (and perhaps a dose of defiant pride) that we discover the following surprising fact. This month the state-run journal, Kultura, named 20 plays which it very embodiment of ‘sleaze, obscenities, pornography, and worthless shamanism disguised as innovation’. The play which heads the list is “Slow Sword” by Yurii Strike […]
At 6pm-7.30pm on 4th of June 2018, Sputnik will present a reading of Ukrainian-speaking Elephants by Natalia Vorozhbit (Ukraine), translated by Sasha Dugdale, at UCL’s Festival of Culture in London, the first presentation of this play in England. The cast is: Sophia Kayes, James Robinson, Géhane Strehler. Directed by: Noah Birksted-Breen. The reading will take […]
By Noah Birksted-Breen. This article was originally published on the Creative Multilingualism website. I have just finished translating Mikhail Durnenkov’s The War Hasn’t Yet Started for the third time in as many years. I’m in an unusual situation – one translator creating three different versions of the same play. As far as I know, that […]
The Theatre Times Interview with Noah Birksted-Breen
AK: How would you define New Russian Drama in a single word?
GS: Fresh. I know that this term does not describe a specific theme or style, but as far as I can tell, there was no single theme or group of themes or unifying style that holds these plays together. New Russian Drama was, however, fresh relative to the plays that were being staged at the time.
An interview about the project at Theatre 503 – original article by going to this link. Reproduced (unformatted) below. Theatre louder than politics Is it Getting Cold in Here…?, a selection of plays on contemporary Russia, currently runs at Theatre503. The Kompass spoke to Nina Belenitskaya and Evgeny Kazachkov, the two Russian playwrights part of […]
The Spanish edition of Russia Beyond The Headlines interviewed Noah Birksted-Breen in May 2014.
Sputnik’s artistic director, Noah Birksted-Breen, has organised a panel discussion at Queen Mary University, as part of QUORUM, a bi-weekly public seminar for academics, PhD students and theatre practitioners. The title is: ‘Changes in the landscape of contemporary playwriting: 2000-2014’. Confirmed speakers are: Sebastian Born, Associate Director (Literary), National Theatre Chris Campbell, Literary Manager, Royal […]
“The Sputnik Theatre Company also offers a glimmer of hope. If the taste for Russian theatre in Britain is going to get out of its 19th-century rut, it may well start here.” To read the full article – click here.
‘We must refuse to forget the case of Sergei Magnitsky. Congratulations to the [Sputnik theatre] company…’ Sir Tom Stoppard video here
One Hour Eighteen Minutes
12 Nov 2012 “A new play about Magnitsky opens in London, three years after the lawyer’s controversial death. Extracts of original diaries and letters are used to help re-enact what happened to Magnitsky in detention in this powerful stage drama.” “The strongest parts of this compelling drama include actual quotations from the records the lawyer […]
20 Nov 2012, at New Diorama Theatre Post show discussion with William Browder to be chaired by a VIP whose name will only be given on the night Bill Browder – Chief Executive and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the company that hired Sergei Magnitsky to investigate the tax refund fraud set up by Russian […]
Christopher Hancock is a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Chris volunteered with Sputnik in 2010, supporting us in our realisation of the 1st Russian Theatre Festival. We asked him for some reflections on his time training in Russia, compared to his training in the UK: Ask any British drama student to sign up […]
Dmitry Krymov’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream in Stratford-upon-Avon and Edinburgh this August – highly recommended! Dmitry Krymov is one of the most innovative directors to emerge in Moscow in the last decade. He began as a stage designer in the mid-1970s, often creating sets for his father, the great director Anatoly Efros. From the […]
A blog by Noah Birksted-Breen “I’ve just got back from Russia, supported by a StepBeyond grant from the European Cultural Foundation – where I met with Elena Gremina, who many consider to be Russia’s foremost political playwright, most famous for her play One Hour Eighteen Minutes, a landmark documentary play about the death of whistle-blowing […]
One of the most renown Russian playwrights on his play “Tityus the Irreproachable”
Yaroslava Pulinovich’s view on Russian theatre
Interview with Natalia Kolyada, “Free Theatre”, Belarus
Review on Sputnik’s new work – One Hour Eighteen Minutes by ELena Gremina –
a documentary play which pieces together the final hours of Sergey Magnitsky, a corporate lawyer who sued the Russian government for one of the most blatant cases of tax fraud in Russian history.
