Terrorism is the Presnyakov Brothers' best-known and most widely performed play.
Synopsis The play is composed of six scenes from urban life. Delayed passengers grumble about a bomb scare at the airport. A man and a woman commit adultery. Office workers argue while one of their colleagues quietly leaves to hang herself. Two elderly women in a playground complain about their husbands and mock a man seated nearby. Policemen quarrel in their barracks. Finally, the passengers on the plane prepare for take-off. By the end, it becomes clear that these seemingly random scenes are connected by a subtle thread, suggesting that individuals bear responsibility for one another even within a fragmented urban society.
Productions The play premiered at the Chekhov
Moscow Art Theatre in 2002, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov. It won the theatre's annual competition for best new play, an award funded by the Russian Ministry of Culture. In 2003, the
Royal Court Theatre in London staged a production translated by Sasha Dugdale, directed by Ramin Gray, and designed by Hildegard Bechtler. The play was both a critical and popular success. Since its debut,
Terrorism has been performed across Europe, including in Germany,
Sweden,
Poland,
Norway, Spain, Ireland, and
Estonia, as well as internationally in Australia,
Chile,
Brazil, and
Taiwan. The American premiere took place
off-Broadway in May 2005 in a co-production between
The New Group and The Play Company at the Clurman Theater, Theatre Row, New York. The production was directed by Will Frears, with set design by David Korins and costumes by Sarah Beers. In Canada, the play premiered in
Toronto in April 2008, directed by Adam Bailey and produced by Royal Porcupine Productions. Fragments of the play in English were also published in
English Studies Forum by Kevin Ewert of the
University of Pittsburgh at
Bradford. ==
Playing the Victim==