The newest work from legendary poet-playwright Murray Mednick is a dramatic character study incorporating historical footage and photos to explore two distantly connected relationships: that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his wife Nadya, and of Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and his married lover and “muse” Lilya Brik
According to Mednick:
“The play traces the parallel stories of these two couples. Lilya was a B actress who convinced Stalin, after Mayakovsky’s suicide, to restore Mayakovsky to the canon of accepted Soviet poets. Nadya committed suicide during a state dinner, renouncing both her husband and his policies. It’s about the repercussions of power, about the push and pull between secularism and religion.”
