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We enter the Studio, set out in thrust mode, to see a semi-naked man laid out, apparently asleep on a sarcophagus. The room is shrouded in smoke and lit by candles in tall stands. A carved wooden chair waits in the midst of the candles. (There is a touch of Hammer Horror to the scene.) The comatose man is Rubin, whom we later learn is sedated because of his extraordinary experiences in a cellar in the Monastery of St Peter Rabinovitch, near Katowice, Poland, in the early summer of 1944. Into this spooky atmosphere walks Andrei Vukhov, who then proceeds to tell us his story and Rubin’s part in it: seven Russian officers were incarcerated in the cellar and then abandoned by the retreating German Army; they had no clothes, food or water, and no way to escape; so they ate each other, one by one. Vukhov and Rubin were the only survivors. Over the course of the next 100 minutes, we find out more about Vukhov: he is a family man who cares about his childhood friendships; an engineer; someone who knows the Second Law of Thermodynamics (any system will decline to disorder, unless you put energy into it); and he is a strong character. Vukhov challenges us to understand his actions and perhaps dare to make a judgement of him. Is he mad, or were his deeds those of a rational man? He waves the sharpened thigh bone of a dead comrade like baton in directing the thoughts of the audience. We are totally absorbed in Vukhov’s macabre moral dilemma. Author, Barry Collins, has convincingly imagined what Vukhov and Rubin went through, and actor, Alexander Rogers, gives a powerful performance in his interpretation of the words. Rogers is both mesmerising and chilling in his utterly convincing portrayal. It is a remarkable story, put together in this terrific production by StopGap Theatre, a talented local theatre company. Phil Bloomfield (DI Reviewer), 16/12/09 |
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