Written by Peter Morgan, royal family chronicler and creator of “The Crown,” “Patriots” treads territory less familiar to American audiences or London, where this production premiered at the Almeida Theater in 2022. “In the West, you have no idea” Boris Berezovsky (Michael Stuhlbarg) says straight away, as Morgan issues his own challenge.
It’s difficult territory to conquer, despite the Sturm und Drang of this production by Almeida’s artistic director Rupert Goold (Netflix, co-producer of the series, is reportedly developing a film adaptation). Morgan’s choice to focus on Berezovsky, a central figure in the formation of post-Soviet Russia (and the installation of its authoritarian leader), is promising. But “Patriots” suffers from a vagueness in both focus and scale, dramatizing historical incidents and backstage deals while barely sketching the characters behind them.
Berezovsky’s motivation is at least clear. Responding to a barrage of calls from behind a desk (no to his teenage daughter, yes to his mistress), he told an associate: “It’s always good to be rich. » On a raised platform surrounded by a wall of underlit, mottled red bricks (design by Miriam Buether and lighting by Jack Knowles), the pugnacious businessman looks like a mad scientist concocting new ways to earn money. money.
In amber flashbacks to Berezovsky as a young math prodigy, he tells his teacher (Ronald Guttman) that he wants to win the Nobel Prize for the sake of a million dollars and jubilant rights. Berezovsky’s abandoned ambition is another indication that he is going to become a very greedy man who makes very big mistakes.
Stuhlbarg gives Berezovsky a stormy, gesticulating wit, but there’s little more than pure greed behind his actions — from striking a deal with ascendant oil tycoon Roman Abramovich (Luke Thallon) to selecting a replacement for Boris Yeltsin (Paul Kynman). Berezovsky’s allegiance to democracy is entirely tied to his capitalist exploits, so a possible break in principle with his protégé is difficult to swallow.
Putin, played with chilling reserve by Will Keen, is clearly the most intriguing person on stage and the reason the play exists. “Patriots” is most captivating when it gives a brief, often wordless glimpse into the inner workings of a burgeoning brain: Watch as Keen widens his stance to find the 5-foot-7 leader’s signature bullish posture. Notice that his right hand is shaking like a lit fuse while the rest of his body is stiff as dynamite. Keen’s quietly magnificent performance has the bottled intensity of a pipe bomb, and the show seems less dangerous in her absence.
His transition from anti-corruption liberal to despot is kept behind the scenes and described second-hand (Thallon’s Abramovich is almost exclusively saddled with factual exposes). We see that Putin learned to control the media from Berezovsky and watched it destroy his creator at his own game (with the help of Ash J Woodward’s wall-to-wall projection design). But the play too often keeps its most compelling character at arm’s length, instead dispersing its attention among men whose fates are intertwined – notably Berezovsky’s former FSB officer turned protector, Alexander Litvinenko (Alex Hurt) – but whose characters are unevenly developed.
Unlike Morgan’s previous political plays, “The Audience,” about the Queen meeting a succession of prime ministers, and “Frost/Nixon,” about television interviews between the two, “Patriots” lacks a strict organizing principle . It also has plenty of contextual information to relay (broad statements beginning with “the West” and “the Russian people” are frequent refrains), but could still include more. The story’s steady march and flashy transitions between scenes (aided by sound designer and composer Adam Cork) give the play its forward motion, rather than its investment in its characters or their fates.
Some may already be aware of Berezovsky’s flight to asylum in the United Kingdom, where he sued Abramovich for billions (and lost), his associate Litvinenko was poisoned, and Berezovsky himself died in controversial circumstances. The only survivor among them, in “Patriots” as in the present, remains unfathomably distant.
Patriots, through June 23 at the Barrymore Theater in New York. 2 hours and 30 minutes. patriotsbroadway.com
Gn entert
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
