Donkey Heart

TRANSFERRING TO THE WEST END

Nina Raine's revival of her brother Moses' Moscow-set play is set for the West End after a critically acclaimed run at the Old Red Lion Theatre in May 2014.

WHAT IS DONKEY HEART ABOUT?

Three generations of a single Moscow family reflect the societal changes of a rapidly changing Russia following the collapse of communism. The eldest, Grandfather Alexander is preoccupied with communism?s failings and speaks of his horror at having survived Leningrad by eating leather, as well as losing his son under mysterious circumstances due to the police state, who were instrumental in making people disappear.

His surviving son, Ivan is a middle-ranking treasury civil servant who has enjoyed various new freedoms since the fall of the Soviet regime, however this comes at a price through his many extra-marital affairs that leave his children in turn, feeling alienated.

Ivan's daughter Sasha is as much of a rebel against the new capitalism as she is a misanthrope, often targeting her English Russo-phile boyfriend Thomas. Her brother is desperate to avoid the draft, and manages to get out of it due to the corruption in his father's job. The overarching theme is that despite the hard and fast changes that a country has experienced, on a more human level the lessons that were so crucial at the time are easily forgotten in the push to find one's place in life.