LONDON – The Novichok nerve agent poisoning aimed, but failed to assassinate ex-Russian spy Sergey Skripal, and led to the death of a local resident instead in the British town Salisbury. One year on, the tragic event has been turned into a satirical play called “To See Salisbury,” staged at London’s Playground Theatre, which opened on March 30.
A year ago, on March 4, Salisbury became infamous for a chemical attack from which the city has never recovered. Tourists are scared to visit, and locals fear that a poisoning may occur again. Salisbury was declared Novichok-free only a month ago, after a military clean-up lasting 13,000 hours.
The alleged murderers turned out to be working for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. The two main suspects, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, came to the UK using fake passports issued under the names of Aleksander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. They denied all of the accusations and insisted that they were just tourists in an absurd staged interview with Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT, the Kremlin’s main propaganda outlet for the foreign audience.
After watching the interview, the well-known Putin critic and Russian satirist Viktor Shenderovich wrote the script for the play. He is among the minority of Russian artists who are warmly welcomed in Ukraine and is respected for his political beliefs.
“I avoided watching this interview for a long time until my friend told me ‘You have to watch it; it’s very funny,’” Shenderovich said after the play’s premier in London.
“I thought ‘What could be funny here? Two murderers being questioned by another one,’” he said.
Existential tragicomedy
However, once he watched the interview, the idea for a satirical play came to him. Shenderovich reversed reality, taking as true what Mishkin (Petrov) and Chepiga (Boshirov) said, inspired by Tom Stoppard’s existential tragicomedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” – a parody of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
In Shenderovich’s play, Aleksander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are lovers, who have to keep their relationship quiet and date secretly, because one of them has a wife and a daughter. They come to Salisbury to spend time together and to see the famous cathedral, but find themselves being accused of murder.
As the performance starts, Petrov and Boshirov’s characters appear on stage sitting in a train, trying to run away. The eyes of the strangers are fixed on them. They regret coming to Salisbury, the city of Boshirov’s cherished dreams, and wish to be left in peace.
“Hug me as you did then,” says Boshirov, played by Belarussian Oleg Sidorchik, who was granted political asylum in the UK.
“No,” cuts in Petrov, played by Alexey Averkin, a Russian actor.
“You don’t love me anymore,” continues Boshirov.
“The main thing now is to ensure that nobody guesses that we’re just a couple of miserable homosexuals,” Petrov says.
The play is being staged in two languages, Russian and English, with two casts.
“They are forced to either pretend that they are killers or admit that they are a gay couple. And they find that that this is very tricky, because they feel that it is just as bad to be thought of as being a homosexual couple (in Russia) as being killers, or even worse,” James Marlowe, the British actor who plays Boshirov in the English version of the play, told the Kyiv Post.
In the next scene, the characters of Boshirov and Petrov arrive at a bar and share with each other the weird dreams they have started to have.
“They had dreams of Nina Ricci perfume,” a container for which was used by the actual GRU killers to bring the Novichok nerve agent into the UK, said Oliver Bennett, who plays Petrov in the English-language version of the play.
“And they hear inner voices telling them to go and kill someone. So they are like, ‘f*ck, this is really weird.’
“They see that everything shown in the news matches up with their dreams. So they get totally confused, thrown into a total existential crisis. Petrov keeps getting these kinds of like, glitch sort of things, like having a previous identity. Just like, ‘Was there a past life when I was a killer?’” Bennett continued.
Important task
As the story develops, the characters of Boshirov and Petrov realize they have to speak to the media.
“We have to call Simonyan,” says Petrov.
“Who?” asks Boshirov.
“Simonyan, the editor at RT.”
”We do not even have her number.”
“Everyone does,” says Petrov.
They arrive at the TV studio but instead of Simonyan, a GRU agent is there to remind Petrov and Boshirov who they actually are.
“You were assigned to do an important task which you completely f*cked up,” says the agent, played by Andrey Sidelnikov, the head of the international movement Speak Louder, and a Russian political exile in the UK.
Sidelnikov’s character is furious that the spies cannot remember their past as secret agents, and threatens to punish them:
“First we will make you ashamed – we will call Colonel Simonyan to ask you questions and broadcast it on the news.”
The GRU agent persuades Boshirov and Petrov that he is in charge of everything in Russia, and Putin, just like them, is on a mission. To pay for the failed assignment, Petrov is sent to Argentina to bring cocaine to the Motherland.
“You will get all of your instructions at the embassy,” says the agent.
Mother Russia
Throughout the play, both Petrov and Boshirov lose their identities in time and space. However, they are never left on their own. The couple is followed by another character, Mother Russia. She has dementia, paranoia, and blindness, caused by careless handling of the dangerous poisons. Mother Russia, who is played by Belorussian actress Alexia Mankovskaya, is also ready to start a nuclear war.
Mankovskaya wears a military uniform and bright-red high heels. After her character, Mother Russia starts the next World War, everyone on the stage realizes that Russia smells and needs to be washed.
She resists, saying: “I have this national identity. That is why I cannot wash. If I do, I will lose my Russian spirit.”
In the final scene Mother Russia admits that she is dirty and untidy: “’Farewell, farewell, unwashed Russia, the land of slaves, the land of lords.’ That is a line by (Russian writer Mikhail) Lermontov,” the actress told the Kyiv Post.
“The association line goes like this: the perfume (Nina Ricci), to the smell, then to Russia,” the actress explained.
Both the English and Russian versions of the play are directed by Belorussian Vladimir Scherban, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
“The theme is important, interesting and provocative, as it should be in a modern theater. It really touches a nerve, in a fun way,” Scherban told the Kyiv Post.
Regarding the cast, he said: “I think all actors have different political views, but if people participate in this, it means that for some reason they consider it necessary. After all, not every actor will agree, because it is scary, there is this unconscious fear.”
“The play itself selects (the actors),” he said.
Taste and tact
As the premier of the play ended the audience burst into applause. Members of the audience thanked the cast for being both daring and providing a lot of laughs.
After the premiere in London, the play is to tour the United States in summer. In autumn “To See Salisbury,” comes to Ukraine.
But playwright Viktor Shenderovich asked Ukrainians to treat his art responsibly: “Since this is a harsh satire, including, among other things, the militant Russian mentality, I understand that this could go off with a bang in Ukraine, but on the other hand I would really like (Ukrainians) to perceive this with some taste and tact,” he said.
“I would not want our disaster to bring joy. I understand that Ukraine today has the right to rejoice in our calamity, it has that right, but I understand the full scope of this situation.”
“When I am accused of anti-Russian sentiment or dislike, it is my love for Russia and my willingness to talk about it that is the answer, because I am ashamed of myself. That’s the difference between laughing at yourself and laughing at another.
“I feel it is important and right if this play one day is shown in Russia. I want these tough words to be heard there,” he said.
However, despite the worldwide interest and requests to show the play in a number of countries, no one in Russia has yet approached Shenderovich to stage it there.
Banned in Russia
Irina Ioannesyan, the executive producer also wants the play to be shown in Russia. However, she feels that, as with all of the plays she produces, it may be impossible:
“When the play ‘Devil’s Choice’ was launched, I had Ada Rogovtseva (a Ukrainian actress banned in Russia) on the stage, I had Viktor Shenderovich, who performs in Russia from time to time – sometimes the lights went off, sometimes something else,” she said, referring to attempts by the authorities in Russia disrupt performances of Shenderovich’s plays.
“Now I have on the stage Andrei Sidelnikov, who is a political exile, and Belarussian Oleg Sidorchik, who is a political exile as well,” continued Ioannesyan. She said she doubted the actors would even be able to go to Russia, far less perform there.
Negotiations are now underway to show the play in Salisbury.
The budget of the two versions of the play was around 25,000 pounds ($33,000), said Ioannesyan. She sponsored the performance herself, and said she is sure the play will bring a return on her investment.
