The Suicide

“Fifty years later, The Suicide seems a remarkable political document testifying to the Russians’ sense of humour in the darkest Stalinist days. Perhaps this accounts for its popularity.”
– The Toronto Star

“Erdman was a talented man groping in the wilderness of new theatrical forms…it is credit to his skill that it (the play) can still be pleasurably performed.”
– The Globe & Mail

For a play that is over fifty years old, The Suicide continues to be a hot property. In 1932 it was Russian social comedy, which Stanislavsky had rehearsed for 18 months and which Stalin abrubtly canned…it really came back to life with a 1979 Royal Shakespeare production and a Broadway run with Derek Jacoby in 1991.

Nikolai Erdman is best known for his play, The Suicide, called ‘a work of genius’ by Konstantin Stanislavsky and ’empty and even harmful’ by Joseph Stalin. Written in the late 1920s, it would be forty years before it would be performed.