"Patriots" at Noel Coward Theatre

 

Production photo by Marc Brenner

After a quick trip to Paris, we came back through London for a few days to catch up with friends and maybe another play or two. Peter Morgan's Patriots kept showing up on a lot of lists of good shows, so we decided to check it out. It was an added bonus that it was playing at the Noel Coward Theatre, and we had just heard a lecture on the life and career of Noel Coward, who also happens to be a favorite artist of one of the friends we'd been traveling with. So all signs pointed to this play!

The Play

Even without all the omens, this looked like a play we'd find interesting. It's basically about the rise of Russian oligarchs taking up the power vacuum left by the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, and particularly the story of one of the most visible oligarchs, Boris Berezovsky, the controlling owner of Russia's main state television station, ORT. As a media mogul, Berezovsky was able to both reflect the government's policies and also influence them, including boosting the career of a former KGB officer and low-level party apparatchik named Vladimir Putin.

Berezovsky's position is that he is saving Russia (or at least what he believes to be important about Russia) by exerting his financial muscle to advance his preferred policies. Although he also accumulates tremendous personal wealth and privilege, he believes he is being patriotic by "saving Russia" in the absence of coherent political action. The core conflict in the play is the tug-of-war between politicians and businessmen, each believing themselves to be the true patriots.

In a sort of Frankenstein scenario, we ultimately see Berezovsky's creation, Putin, rise up and thwart his benefactor, with Berezovsky ending up in exile in Britain, trying to find ways to influence, and ultimately return to, Russia.

It's quite involved, and covers a lot of Russian history that is probably not well understood by a lot of Americans. But of course, this is British theater, so they assume a much higher level of involvement by their audience. Morgan's script is clever and clear, bringing out the conflicts both within the character of Berezovsky and between him and the enigmatic Putin.

The Production

I'm always amazed at the quality of the theatre productions in London. It's really good to see support given to thoughtful plays that might not attract a mass audience, but which get full houses for good-length runs in the major theaters. The quality of the acting and the designs is always a pleasant surprise to me, since so few plays get that kind of treatment in the U.S.

This is a case where the production itself isn't terribly glitzy, but it's more complex than you might initially think, and it's very effective. The lighting and sound work is excellent, and the acting is top-notch, starting with Tom Hollander as Berezovsky. I had the pleasure of seeing Hollander a few years ago in the Broadway transfer of a UK production of Tom Stoppard's Travesties, and he was stellar in that. So it's no surprise that he carries this production as well. Berezovsky is the central character throughout, so he has a lot of lifting to do. Will Keen's rendition of Putin is also quite good, managing to evoke the cypher that is the bureaucrat-turned-autocrat, such that we're never sure whether Berezovsky manipulated Putin into office, or Putin manipulated Berezovsky into putting him there. The two play off each other magnificently.

Director Rupert Goold keeps the show moving right along. Berezovsky loves to talk, and he talks fast, so we jump from one scene to the next, one phone call to the next meeting, all at rapid pace. Berezovsky is like a manic Wall Street exec from the crazy 80s, constantly making deals and pulling strings. He's oh-so-confident that he's in control until suddenly, he is not. The supporting cast is consistently strong, particularly Josef Davies as Alexander Litvinenko and Ronald Guttman as Berezovsky's academic mentor and sounding board, Professor Perelman.

The Bottom Line

It's a good play, well written and well produced, so it develops and maintains interest in a subject that might not seem so intrinsically interesting. But it's an intriguing insight into how things happen in post-Soviet Russia, which is an important player in the modern world even as it tries to be something else.

We were quite taken with the overall production, and talked about the show at length for several days after, which is always a good sign. The show currently runs through August 19th in the West End. I'd say it's well worth seeing.