THE SUICIDE (a comedy) at Holden Street Theatres

The Suicide is a deliriously funny and laugh-out-loud comedy about an unemployed man, Semyon, who contemplates suicide. When his thoughts become known, a variety of zany characters try to persuade him to die to promote their cause – including artists, intellectuals, lovers and butchers. All plead their case and hope to gain publicity if Semyon dies in their name.

Nikolai Erdman’s 1924 Russian comedy is a testament to the survival instinct of the individual in the face of crushing external and social forces. When you consider the times in which it was written, the audacity is breathtaking. It celebrates the will to love, it argues for the right to work, and is filled with wonderful, wild and madcap humour. Unsurprisingly, Stalin banned it!

The Suicide is regarded as one of the finest plays to have come out of Communist Russia. Britain’s longest serving theatre critic, Michael Billington includes it in his collection of “The 101 Greatest Plays”.