A tragic satire from the book by F.M. Dostoevsky (World Premiere)
Dramatised by Peter Stürm from the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
25 OCTOBER – 11 NOVEMBER 2017
ST LEONARD’S CHURCH, SHOREDITCH, LONDON E1 6JN
“Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” Luke 8: 33.
In 1869 five young radicals murder their co-conspirator Ivanov on a university campus. The subsequent trial causes a sensation across Imperial Russia and inspires Dostoevsky to write his prophetic satire on the new generation of revolutionaries. Erotics and ideologies intertwine and finally become demonic. DEMONS is a timely theatrical response to the general confusion of our own times and marks the Centenary of the Russian Revolution October 1917 – 2017.
Performed in a site-responsive staging in the atmospheric setting of St Leonard’s Church. Many of the Elizabethan theatrical fraternity are buried in the crypt, including the Burbage family – Richard Burbage the very first actor to play Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III and Romeo. Shakespeare also prayed there.
Ensemble: Timothy Allsop, Laura Sophia Becker, Samuel Collings, Tyler Fayose, Valerie Gogan, Jeffery Kissoon, Tom Larkin, Irina Peltola, Jethro Skinner, Karina Wiedman.
Design: Nicolai Hart-Hansen Sound Design: Mike Furness Director: Peter Stürm
“Lenin would have found this production more forward-looking than the book. Indeed it reaches beyond nineteenth-century Russia, hinting at the present necessity to transform the world, which was, after all, the Bolsheviks ultimate goal” Times Literary Supplement
“The cast introduced the themes of God and revolution and of course extreme violence in the name of a cause. The work is pertinent in these times, not least with screams for safe spaces, cries of heresy and denouncements, and fascist salutes once again in Spain. So once again thank you, it is a difficult piece, hugely complex and layered with meaning but one that needed voicing” Audience member
Performances from 25 October – 11 November 2017
WED 25 Oct 7pm – Opening night CENTENARY of the Russian Revolution (Julian calendar) and storming of the Winter Palace
MON 30 Oct 7pm GALA Night in support of the work of St Leonard’s Church
TUES 7 Nov 7pm – CENTENARY of the Russian Revolution (Gregorian calendar)
SAT 11 Nov final performances 2pm and 7pm – Dostoevsky’s birthday
DEMONS Photos: First 10 this page by Bronwen Sharp. Last 5 by Max Reeves
