"When we say that something is true, it becomes true. When we say that something is false, it becomes false."
In 1920, Russian Jewish writer Isaac Babel starts a diary while wandering the countryside with the Red Cavalry. In 2010, after the crash of an aircraft carrying the Polish president, his diary is discovered among the wreckage. What did Babel write, and why does it matter so much to a low-level KGB agent who may or may not be Vladimir Putin?
This 2018 Obie Award Winner explores the blurred lines between lies, history and conspiracy theories, as it tracks back and forth across 90 years of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia.
Rajiv Joseph’s (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) sharp-witted dialogue and historical juxtapositions bring to mind Tom Stoppard’s and Tony Kushner’s best works. An epic fantasy that weaves historical figures into imagined happenings of the past, featuring a Putin-esque KGB officer, the play deftly incorporates the tension and intrigue of a spy thriller with a touching dive into the realm of magical realism.
