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The Suicide satirises the plight of an unemployed

"little man",

Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov.

Work gets around that he is contemplating suicide, and he is immediately besieged by spokespeople of various discontented groups - intellectuals, businesspersons, the church, artists and others, who beg him to kill himself as a gesture on their behalf.  

The idea is that Semyon will leave behind a note, accusing and denouncing!  Through the dead Semyon, the intelligentsia, business, church and others can make their complaints - after all, "only the dead may say what the living think".

What ensues is not only a lively farce,

but also a passionate plea

from the voiceless to the powers that be ...

Nikolai Erdman wrote The Suicide in 1928.  But in 1932 its first Soviet production was banned by Stalin.  It has never been produced or published in the USSR.

Erdman wrote only two plays, and died in relative obscurity

in Moscow in 1970 at the age of 68.

22 - 27 OCTOBER 1988

Phoenix Theatre

Written by

NIKOLAI ERDMAN

Directed by

JACK MIGDALEK

Produced by

STEVEN CURTIS

Starring

MICHELLE FARBER

HELEN DELCANHO

DANNY GESUNDHEIT

ARI UNGLIK

ELISA GRAY

JOEL JAFFA

EZ SION

ASHLEY BUSH

DAVID ROTHBERG

LISA TODD

ANDREA OPAT

YAEL PHILLIPS

LEAH ROTHBERG

JONATHON FINKELSTEIN

ADAM HELD

DOROTHY KRISTY

RAOUL SALTER

ELI EREZ

TALYA MASEL

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