Plasticine

An extraordinary and disturbing play about post-Communist Russia by a young Siberian-born writer.

In a faceless city in the depths of present-day Russia a young boy dies. Women in the street are drunk, fight and demand sex. Maksim, a schoolboy, makes his way through this urban hell. His only retreat is into a private world moulded by himself, out of which springs a final act of reckless courage.

Vassily Sigarev's play Plasticine was premiered in this English translation by Sasha Dugdale at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2002. It won Sigarev the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the Anti-Booker Prize in Moscow.



'Watching this impressive and disturbing howl of a play by the young Russian writer, Vassily Sigarev, is like taking a walk through a rough, druggy London scene after closing time... it has flashes of almost comic grotesquery, vividly communicates an alarming sense of contemporary urban Russia on the verge of anarchy and breakdown'



'This extraordinary play lasts only 75 minutes, but watching Dominic Cooke's brilliant production you feel you have been to hell and back. Plasticine offers a nightmarish trip to the lower depths of contemporary Russia, and the sheer power of the staging leaves you reeling'