THE GRAIN STORE To 1 October.
Stratford-upon-Avon.
THE GRAIN STORE
by Natal’ia Vorozhbit translated by Sasha Dugdale.
Courtyard Theatre In rep to 1 October 2009.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 October.
Food for thought about starvation.
This is the food part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Russian double, first course in its four-year ‘Revolutions’ event. Or rather, it’s the lack-of-food part. And it’s not exactly Russian, being set in writer Natal’ia Vorozhbuit native Ukraine – the ‘granary’ of Russia - between 1929-1933 when Stalin’s forced collectivisation of farms and attack on the ‘kulaks’, or rich peasants, reduced the high-yielding land to poverty.
Vorozhbit shows the impact comically as Forbes Masson’s balloon-bellied kulak returns from prison much diminished, and tragically as a happy village is progressively weakened by hunger. At first, as the village church is converted to a grain-store, ending up a place of neither spiritual nor material sustenance, the Soviets persuade through agitprop theatre attacking the bloodsucking clergy. And there are Communist lectures.
Neither mean much to people living by the traditional regularity of the seasons. But they understand the guns that force compliance. As they grow weaker, Brecht’s anti-capitalist slogan from The Threepenny Opera (roughly contemporary with this play’s action) ‘food first – morals follow on’ acquires ironic new resonance.
There’s no political analysis of the forced removal of grain to the cities, or Russia’s suppression of Ukrainian culture. Human aspects are uppermost; the screw tightens when, offered a decent meal, the starving people become happy dancing peasantry for propaganda purposes, collapsing as they rehearse repeatedly. Threaded throughout is a love story with an unexpected outcome. This, with the present-day framing, adds some depth to the action.
Michael Boyd’s production is preceded by an onstage Ukrainian meal for early-arriving spectators, adding to the sense of later withdrawal, while high-quality RSC acting and production carry the less convincing sections. From Sam Troughton and Mariah Gale’s arrogantly sloganising actors and John Mackay as a cold apparatchik, to Samantha Young as the sweet-singing Ukrainian with partial-understanding of events and hunger-conditioned love, the company is excellent.
None more so than Kathryn Hunter, first seen swinging above the stage in a role that becomes clear at the very end; a moment that might seem sentimental to the well-fed but must be a heart-stopper for anyone bred on tales of those times.
Yurko: Joseph Arkley.
Olyana: Noma Dumezweni.
Landowner: Geoffrey Freshwater.
Masha: Mariah Gale.
Lionechka/Todos/Guard: Gruffudd Glyn.
Tramp: Greg Hicks.
Gavrilo: Kathryn Hunter.
Arsei’s Mother: Kelly Hunter.
Vasilii: Ansu Kabia.
Arsei Pechoritsa: Tunji Kasim.
Gafiika/Lionechka’s Mother: Debbie Korley.
Mortko: John Mackay.
Samson: Forbes Masson.
Onis’ko: Dharmesh Patel.
Artiukh the Burier/Old Woman Dancing: Patrick Romer.
Yukhim: David Rubin.
Gorobets: Oliver Ryan.
Mokrina’s Sister/Nurse: Simone Saunders.
Old Woman With An Empty Bucket: Peter Shorey.
Samoilenka: Katy Stephens.
Ivan Ivanovich: Sam Troughtoin.
Rudenko: James Tucker.
Feodosii/Guard: Larrington Walker.
Kilina: Kirsty Woodwatd.
Mokrina Staritskaya: Samantha Young.
Director: Michael Boyd.
Designer: Tom Piper.
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick.
Sound: Nick Powell.
Music/Music Director: John Woolf.
Movement: Anna Morrissey.
Company text/voice work: Alison Bomber, Tess Dignan.
Fights: Terry King.
Dramaturg: Jeanie O’Hare.
Assistant director: Vik Sivalingam.
2009-10-06 01:13:48