Dying For It (2025)

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Poster by Lisa Thomas

by Moira Buffini

The play is a free adaptation of The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman.

Directed by Lisa Thomas

Performances: Tuesday 08 April – Saturday 12 April 2025, Old Fire Station


Introduction from SLT website

Dying For It is a wildly entertaining and thought-provoking story about one man’s journey to find meaning in a world that seems determined to crush him.

A sharply comic tale of despair, hope, and absurdity set in Soviet Russia, the story centres on Semyon, a down-on-his-luck, unemployed man who decides he has nothing left to live for. As various parties seek to make his suicide about their cause, his crisis spirals into an absurd public spectacle and he begins to question whether his life - or death - has more value than he imagined.

Introduction from programme by the director

Dying for It is Moira Buffini's free adaptation of The Suicide by Russian playwright, Nikolai Erdman (1900-1970). Written in 1928, the play was deemed so subversive by Soviet censors that several attempts to stage it in the late 1920s and early 1930s were aborted. Erdman’s theatrical career stalled and he was permitted by the authorities to write only for children. They play was not produced in Russia until the era of perestroika initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev. It had been performed in English a decade earlier when the RSC commissioned a translation to produce and acclaimed English version.

The story centres on Semyon Semyonovich, a man brought so low by poverty and unemployment that he feels he may be better off dead than alive. He is preyed on by a coterie of people seeking to get him to die for their own causes, be it the intelligentsia, true love, God and even the Communist Party. The play explores the difference between hope and desperation and how a single utterance can be crystallised into a definite intention. It also realises how the failure of a government to deliver on promises leads to a loss of hope and creates a deep-rooted cynicism. However, it's also very funny, with ridiculous situations and brilliant characters. We hope it makes you laugh as well as think.

Preview from SLT website

This is the second Moira Buffini play you've directed in two years, following Gabriel in 2023 - what is it about her writing that appeals to you?

I’d been thinking of submitting the play that this is based on, The Suicide, by the Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman, but discovered that Moira Buffini had done an adaptation of it. It felt more accessible to a British audience than the original, because of the dryness of the humour. I love the richness of her characters – she never seems to create a role that doesn’t have something of value to say – and the way she constructs a play, so I decided to go with her version.

What themes does this play explore?

It looks at what makes a life worth living – is it because you are loved, or is a sense of worth and value more important? It also explores what happens when people are promised a dream – that of equality and freedom following the Russian Revolution – and then discover the reality is quite different. Most of the characters in the play are poor and deeply disillusioned and their actual hunger makes them quite desperate.

Nikolai Erdman’s original play was considered so critical of post-Revolutionary Russia that it was banned for many years and not performed in Russia until the perestroika era around 1990, although the RSC performed the first English-language adaptation in 1979.

What have been the fun parts in directing this play, and the challenges?

It’s very funny as well as being quite profound (and potentially tragic), and the cast are doing a fantastic job of bringing this out. There are some very heightened characters who still need a sense of humanity. It’s actually all been fun, especially finding that a tiny tweak makes an already funny scene completely hysterical.

The challenges have been mainly to do with lots of instructions to lift and carry people as well as a selection of large, eccentric and tricky props which have involved some interesting travels. And our search for ‘beggar musicians’ to play at the party, despite several promising leads, came to nothing, so we have taken another route.

Tell us about the characters we'll meet

The main protagonists are Semyon (Jamie Bowman) an unemployed man, and his hardworking wife, Masha (Megan Sheerin). They rent a space (a hallway, not a room) in a run-down boarding house which they share with Serafima, Masha’s mother (Laura Morgan), Alexander, a fairground barker (Chris Bennett) and Yegor, a postman and card-carrying communist (Tirusanthan Thiruvilangam).

Patrons of the café run by Margarita (Ingrid Miller) include the poverty-stricken intellectual Aristarkh (Jack King), the romantic Kleopatra (Sagal Jama), Father Yelpidy, an alcoholic priest (David Frost), and Viktor, the self-styled ‘People’s Poet’ (Tom Watts). A pair of undertakers (Paolo Cucchi and Pavel Penev) visit in search of a body at one stage.

Describe the show in three words

Profound, political, hilarious

Cast

Crew

Thanks

Many thanks to the suppliers of the tuba and the coffin. Also to Caroline Doyle for help with shirts, Jenny Bennett for making sure Alexander was suitably clothed and Fiona Daffern for the gramophone. Thanks also to front of house, box office and bar volunteers for keeping everyone organised and their thirst at bay. This one is dedicated to the various Russian ancestors.

Reviews

From the SLT Facebook group:

Phil Gammon: I did dress rehearsal photos for "Dying For It" on Monday. Don't be put off by the grim subject matter. It is laugh-out-loud funny in parts and brilliantly performed.

Tom Mathias: Comrades. Dying For It is not to be missed. The subject matter is serious, but the classic Russian humour is deftly blended with contemporary heart. It is moving and thought-provoking, and so so funny. The humour and pathos, as the situation snowballs out of Semyon's control, complement each other without whiplash, heightening each of them to sublime ridiculousness. Superb individual performances from the entire cast. I can't pick a favourite. One of those shows with favourite moments and lines from each of them. Strong ensemble work, deftly showing real people in a situation with moments that will stay with you and have you talking it through all the way home. BEAD and go and see it so I can talk to you about it!

David Carr: I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Dying for it’ this evening despite initial apprehension. The play is funny with flawless performances across the entire cast, thank you for bringing this all to life with such aplomb. Well done Lisa, cast & crew, special mention of course for the lovely lighting.

Aurora Mclaughlin-Hacker: Saw [Dying for It] this evening instead and it was fantastic . All comrades involved have done an incredible job, could not stop laughing and then crying ❤ Don’t miss it!!!

Caroline Durant: The performances are all so engaging, the time flew by!


Other reviews:

Kimberley Penney: The entire cast was brilliant - funny, seamless, and convincing - with special praise going to the actors portraying the Postman and Margarita. Both delivered standout performances, with excellent comedic instincts and the kind of stage presence that made them the heart of the show. A well-executed, thoroughly enjoyable production.

Naomi Joda: It was sooooo good. Loved all the characters, such good acting!!! It’s the best acting I've seen from an entire cast in a while!

Gallery

See production photographs here (Photographs by Phil Gammon)

Reminiscences and Anecdotes

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See Also

Have there been other SLT productions of this play? Link to them here.

Or add anything that is related within this site. The author's page for instance or other plays with a similar theme.

References

External Links

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