Review: LIFE AND FATE, Theatre Royal Haymarket

Vasily Gossman's novel Life and Fate lands on the Theatre Royal Haymarket's stage in all its glory. Presented by St Petersburg's Maly Drama Theatre in Russian with English surtitles, the production has an earthy and raw vibe. Lev Dodin pens and directs the adaptation, which was born directly in rehearsals back in 2007 when the whole company improvised their way through the 700 pages of the original book.

The play paints a memorable picture of the struggles of war: Dodin tells the story of the Shtrum family in a quietly stirring epic of love and death. It's 1943 and Hitler's Germany is coming head to head with Stalin's Russia in a struggle for survival. Viktor Shtrum (Sergey Kuryshev), a prominent and celebrated Jewish physicist, has discovered how to create an atomic bomb.

His ostracisation in the antisemitic atmosphere of the Soviet State has, however, lead him to be banned from the Institute and placed him in front of a harrowing dilemma: should he stay true to his science and himself or should he repent and confess his sins? Life and Fate is ultimately a piece about identity and heritage pinned to the atrocious background of the Second World War.

Alexey Poray-Koshits curates the set design in a suggestive yet toned-down scenography. A metal volley net placed aslant becomes the grating of the camp and an emblem of division and segregation. His gorgeously wrecked pieces of furniture are evocative of the characters themselves, as they have too been ruined and torn by the conflict.

The company is gut-wrenching in their delivery. As their characters seek to find freedom in captivity (whether actually or spiritually) they juxtapose the joys of life with the terror of torture accompanied by biting humour. Dodin has love scenes overlapping with ones in the camp and frames the narrative with Viktor's mother's (Tatiana Shestakova) heartbreaking final letter from the ghetto, and his ensemble is focused and unfaltering through the three-and-a-half-hours piece.

The length of the show and the impairment of the language may seem tasking elements at the start, but by the end the poignancy of the story and the grandiosity of the cast make it a worthwhile experience.

Life and Fate runs at Theatre Royal Haymarket until 20 May.

Photo credit: Maly Drama