Overview

Premiered at the Royal Court - the first appearance outside Russia of an extraordinary new play about the underlying terror of the everyday Six scenes from urban life. Delayed passengers grumble about a bomb scare at the airport. A man and a woman commit adultery. Office workers bicker while one of their number quietly exits to hang herself. Two grannies in a playground complain about their menfolk and make fun of a man seated on the next bench. Policemen in their barracks scrap amongst themselves. The passengers on the plane finally prepare for take off. By the end we realise these apparently random scenes are in fact linked by an almost invisible thread, subtly indicating that we bear responsibility for one another even in our soulless urban limbo. Terrorism paints a picture at once familiar and strange, deftly depicted with minimal means and depressingly informative about the moral bankruptcy of the new Russia. Presented at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in Spring 2003 as part of short season of Russian plays, Terrorism comes from the same stable as the immensely impressive Plasticine last year.