Holy Fool by Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers, Park Theatre, 13 Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 | until 10 October 2026. ⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Mark Douet

Holy Fool

by Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers

Park Theatre, 13 Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 | until 10 October 2026

⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Tedious play about Shostakovitch.”

The issues about the relationship between the arts, artist and the state raised by this oddly inert play about the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich are certainly important. What is at stake is what happens should the State seek to control their work and lives in the interest of the State. This is dealt with in Julian Barnes' book The Nois of Time, although not having read it merely reporting that. In this play we trot through the facts, his three marriages – two successful one disastrous - his upsetting Stalin with his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk which led to his being accused of being an enemy of the state and living in perpetual fear of arrest, although he did carry on teaching music and composing ballets and symphonies, But once Stalin was gone life under Khrushchev changed and the State accepted as an internationally feted composer he was of value to it although he still had to behave with the utmost care. But all that does not add up to a play. That he was a composer is signalled by blasts of his music from time to time and Benjamin O'Mahoney, who plays him, occasion ally sits down at a grand piano and plays a few chords while wives and friends drink endless glasses of what purports to be vodka as we all know Russians do. The cast perform well enough given the material, but it is one of those inconsequential evenings that leaves one wishing one had been somewhere else, a performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk perhaps or in a concert hall listening to his music.

Cast

Shostakovich – Benjamin O'Mahoney

Nina – Jenna Augen

Izaak – Fergus O'Donnell

Katya – Phoebe Price

Creatives

Director – Kate Fahy

Set & Costume Designer – William Fricker

Lighting Designer – Oliver Fenwick

Sound Designer – Julian Starr