Photos: STALIN'S MASTER CLASS Begins This Saturday At The Odyssey Theatre

Politics collide with art when “Father of the People” Joseph Stalin and Soviet cultural minister Andrei Zhdanov summon composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich to the Kremlin for a vodka-fueled “music lesson” in “Stalin’s Master Class.” The wildly comic, music-filled ride by British playwright David Pownall opens this weekend at the Odyssey Theatre. Check out the photos, below.

Can artistic expression be forced to conform to political ideology? In this darkly funny satire, Pownall imagines a chilling encounter — Prokofiev (Jan Munroe) and Shostakovich (Randy Lowell as) are subjected to the rant and bullying of Stalin (Ilia Volok) and Zhdanov (John Kayton), who accuse the composers of anti-democratic, “formalist” musical tendencies that are alien to the Soviet people and their artistic tastes. “Music that could make a whole population sick!”

Post-war Soviet society may be the backdrop for Stalin’s Master Class, but the themes raised about the relationship between art and politics remain universally relevant.

Tickets

Now in previews, performances continue through May 26. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to OdysseyTheatre.com.