BWW Reviews: BORIS GODUNOV, Brockley Jack Theatre, January 15 2015

Russia - as ill at ease then as now - is reeling after the death of the aptly named Ivan the Terrible, with the great, mad state passing into the hands of his son, Fyodor, who is happy to leave things to his uncle (the eponymous Boris). Ivan's other son, Dimitry, dies in mysterious circumstances, so when Fyodor himself dies, the Russian Church proposes Boris as Tsar. Which is exactly what Boris wanted. Or is it, as is suggested in Boris Godunov (continuing at the Brockley Jack Theatre until 31 January), what Boris intended, with Dimitry's death a suspiciously convenient closing of Ivan's bloodline? Nothing is ever straightforward in Russia, though, and soon a restless monk purporting to be Dimitry (reports of whose death are now considered exaggerated) rallies an army in Poland, picks up some Cossacks in Russia and marches on Moscow.

Sounds like a Shakespearean tragedy? That's what writer Alexander Pushkin aimed for and what his adapter, Howard Colyer, preserves in this scaled-back, black box production. At least the epic sense of the events recounted is preserved; the epic scale of the production (no horses here) is lost - but that's usually the case on the fringe. Audiences will accept such compromises of course, but they might quibble a bit about quite so many scene changes piled on top of each other, quite so many actors playing multiple roles and quite so quick a gallop to the finish after about 80 minutes or so with no interval. There's a baby and bathwater issue here that isn't entirely satisfactorily resolved even with a map of Mother Russia painted on the floor.

Thomas Winsor's "Grigory as Dimitry" is an interesting and highly contemporary character, though. When he challenges David Bromley's bombastic Boris Godunov, one cannot but think of another outsider, another who challenged a tottering Royal House, another who found allies quickly. This fake Dimitry has something of the real Diana about his willingness to see through the trappings of power to where the real power lies - The People. The Charismatic Leader has a poor record in kingship - and a strong record in revolution. No wonder they are as feared today as they were in 1604.