When you’re doomed to lead a perpetually exciting life, playwriting is not the best way of attaining peace and balance. This may surprise people who only know Russian drama through painfully earnest productions of Chekhov, but nothing surprises me anymore.

Mid-week at the annual Lyubimovka festival of young playwriting, I had witnessed a number of great readings – the most memorable one being Anna Yablonskaya’s “Pagans” – when the general excitement was upped a notch by a drunk director. The director and had briefly crossed paths when I joined the Laboratory of Modern Playwriting as a way of distracting myself from my perpetual bad mood (I hadn’t yet realised that one can become a playwright out of desperation). Continue reading →