LIEUTENANT KIZHE by A. COLIN WRIGHT

A satirical comedy in two acts. Multi-roles requiring ideally from six to ten actors. More could be used if available.

Winner in the Special Merit Category of Theatre BC's Fifth Annual Canadian Playwriting Competition 1993. According to the judges: "a sharp, brilliant satire of bureaucracy, blind acceptance of authority and the folly of false perception," "a masterful piece of work that is as opulent and grand as the Court of Russia it is set in." 

Workshopped in Vancouver with a professional director (John Cooper) and actors. Produced by Theatre 5 in Kingston, Ontario, in November 1993.

Loosely based on a novella by the Russian writer Yuri Tynianov, with a number of things changed or added—although, as a satire on the bureacracy, also relevant to the present.

During the reign of Paul I, a non-existent Lieutenant Kizhe is created by a bureaucratic error, while a real Lieutenant Siniukhaev is "killed" in the same way. (It is worth noting that in recent Russian elections a non-existent candidate was both created and voted for!) But once the Emperor has signed the order Siniukhaev is considered as dead and becomes an outcast, while Kizhe is treated as a living person although no one has ever seen him. He has a love affair; is sent to Siberia and brought back again by the Emperor's command; marries and has children; is given land and possessions; advances to the rank of General; and receives a State Funeral when he "dies."

Underlying these events is the Emperor's hatred of his mother, Catherine the Great, who usurped the throne by deposing her husband. The ending is the supposed murder of the Emperor, but here I rewrite history somewhat to conform to the absurdist style of the whole play. 

Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kizhe Suite is used as background music.

Available on line in Toronto Slavic Quarterly, no. 4 (2003).

For more on A. Colin Wright see www.acolinwright.ca and www.sardiniansilver.com