The Last of the Soviets

The 2015 Nobel Prize winner's book brings the stories of ordinary people living in times of great change. A system that was supposed to lead to paradise on earth and last forever has crumbled to dust in a few years; instead of freedom, there is the pursuit of money; instead of democracy, chaos; instead of justice, a fierce struggle between oligarchs and beggars. And soon the people longed for a strong leader to restore order. Alexievich tells it all through the stories of ordinary people, from different classes of the economic spectrum and political mindsets. She lets them speak, she does not judge, she tries to understand them. Although some things are truly difficult to understand...

Based on interviews from the book Secondhand Time, Daniel Majling has written a comprehensive play tracing the fate of a privileged communist family between 1989 and 2003. The personal stories of the individual characters are influenced by historical experiences and injustices, frustration at the loss of superpower status and dashed hopes. Six Chekhovian acts provide us with a hyperbolic portrayal of the life of the Soviet person. But can we truly speak of the end of the Red Man even today?

If we observe the relics of the "Red Man" on the westernmost border of the former communist camp, it is naive to believe that they no longer exist in Czechia or Slovakia. And it is not just the sentiment of the oldest generation that creates a necessity to revisit certain facts.

Daniel Majling

Duration 2.50h including intermission