Slow Sword

Time Out Year-Round Reviews of Theatre 2007
For Slow Sword: “Tip for the top: Noah Birksted-Breen, director and translator of Sputnik Theatre”.

“Vlad is a young professional working in Moscow's money markets. He is not yet 25, but already owns his own apartment, has a beautiful girlfriend and a bright future. Yet Vlad is consumed by anxiety, a feeling that there is something missing from his life. Disconnecting from his pressured money-oriented existence and the middle-class comforts of yoghurt and yoga, he leaves the safety of his flat and plunges into Moscow's murky by-ways on a quest to find the meaning of life. Here, on the mean streets of Putin's Russia, in the toilets of a taxi office and in the stairwells of run-down suburban flats, he confronts the hoodlums, druggies, beggars, hustlers and lost souls who form part of the new Russia.

A former gang member turned playwright, Yuri Klavdiyev's drama has more than a whiff of authenticity, and his strange, unsettling play is part dream, part nightmare and wholly intriguing

Noah Birksted-Breen's production has a beautiful economy this is a play written and produced with genuine passion. Sputnik Theatre should be proud.” The Guardian

“There is horror and dark comedy to spare in this grim portrait of Putin’s Russia. Vladimir is a stressed young financial analyst who believes there must be more to life than your own flat and as much bio-yoghurt as you can drink, and goes down into the street to seek answers. Bad move. The street belongs to junkies like Yuri and Yulia, happy to turn to robbery to fund their habit, and happy – in contrast to Vlad – to call themselves free.

Yuri Klavdiyev’s play is full of biting vignettes, as when a peasant woman, having been robbed at needle-point by Yulia, approaches Vladimir to ask for money, only to be met with a stream of self-important, middle-class invective. Later Vlad and Yulia will share a taxi ride, though he will not notice that she, flopping around in the passenger seat after a violent sexual assault and then a heroin overdose, is dead.

The play, originally commissioned by the RSC, gets its world premiere from Sputnik Theatre, whose Noah Birksted-Breen translates and directs. It’s an initially assured production, with excellent performances from Simon Tcherniak – impressive as the middle-class boy out of his depth – and John Glynn as the cooler-than-thou Yuri.” Time Out