PERFORMANCE DATES
Wednesday 19 – Saturday 22 June 2024 at the Rondo Theatre, BA1 6RT
ABOUT THE PLAY
Collaborators is a darkly comic ‘surreal fantasy’ by John Hodge. Hodge is best known as a screenwriter whose work includes Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Loosely based on historical events, it focuses on the relationship between author and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. First performed in 2011, it won the Olivier Award for best New Play in 2012.
We are very privileged to have John Hodge himself involved in the production. He will be attending rehearsals and workshopping with the cast on their characterisation, as well as attending the Friday and Saturday evening performances for a Q&A session with the audience after the show.
The Play….
The story takes place in Moscow in the years 1938 to 1940 and the drama centers around the apartment of Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife Yelena.
Bulgakov has just finished his play The Life of Monsieur de Molière, which his friends acclaim a masterpiece. The night after the premiere, he is visited by two secret policemen from the NKVD. They tell him the play is banned and will never be shown again unless he cooperates with them in writing a play on the life of the young Joseph Stalin. A pure propaganda piece… At first Bulgakov resists, clearly endangering his life. Their terrorizing of Bulgakov intensifies until he tries to start work, but is unable to put words to paper.Until, one night he receives a phone call and a mystery voice offers him help… Someone who knows Stalin better than anyone else…!
