The Mandate

by Nikolai Erdman
in a new version by Declan Donnellan

Such a tremendous country – then, quick as a flash, bang, revolution, and now look at us! It's so shaming… and in front of foreigners too.

The revolution turns the Guliachins' world upside down. First they must track down members of the working class to pose as relatives. And there's 'Copenhagen Twilight' to replace with a portrait of Karl Marx. But in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, the cook is confused for the Grand Duchess Anastasia… or a call girl, depending on whether she is in or out of her dress.

Banned for decades in the USSR, this uproarious new version of Nikolai Erdman's lost comic masterpiece exposes a society riddled with hypocrisy and confusion.

The Mandate finished on: 26 January 2005