Tyumen, Then. In Soviet Russia, Theatre Perform You!

I don’t know what the headline means, either. I just thought it called for a little Yakov Smirnoff and I ran with it. Forgive me, Comrades.

The Eastern front of the Second World War is a very dark and dismal time in world history, so you’d be forgiven for guessing that this play is bleak all the way through. Indeed, there are brilliantly bleak parts – but also many more moments of laugh-out-loud funny.

This is the story of two Soviet soldiers guarding an uncharacteristically talkative corpse; not just any corpse, either, but the very man who ushered in the dark age of Communism in Russia, Vladimir Lenin. The trio explore themes of war, survival and the conflict between naive utopian dreams of brotherhood and the reality of Communism’s mass production of misery and cynicism.

It’s dark, funny and very original. See this, Comrades. That is an order from the Chairman of the Party himself.