Dead Souls @ Scotland-Russia Institute

A lively adaptation (in English) by David W W Johnstone of Gogol's masterpiece, as well as extracts from Gogol's writings about the work skilfully woven together. This production is a gem for Russophiles or anyone who loves physical theatre.

Robert Williamson is a versatile actor who plays all the characters with charm and verve: Chichikov, the scoundrel who buys dead souls, the various land-owners and Gogol himself, even involving the audience as bit players. Wearing a waistcoat over a white shirt, the only props he needs are a handkerchief for emotional moments, a notebook listing his bought dead souls, and a chair acting as his carriage, to conjure a world of bumpy roads across the vast tundra to crumbling estates owned by mean millionaire landowners (who make their serfs share only one pair of boots between them), or elegant soirées in St Petersburg, kowtowing to His Excellency, or an account of how the famous Chapter 6 was written in a noisy bar, singing as he writes, then bursting into hand-claps and stamping in Russian dance. The political message that the Russian soul needs to be free is lightly slipped in, but clearly this remains a tale suited to our times.