'To Moscow! To Moscow! What are you waiting for?'
The Reds - once the powerless, now the powerful.
The Whites - once the absolute rulers, now the powerless. The former Tsar and his family are imprisoned by the Bolsheviks in a provincial house.
It is a fact the Romanov girls performed Chekhov to pass the time under house arrest. But what happens in this last house of existential chaos, youth versus age, hope versus paranoia, and love versus fear?
R. Johns' new play juxtaposes fragments of Chekhov's Three Sisters with the Revolution, and asks the question: change, but at what cost?
R. JOHNS has a First-Class Honours Drama degree (Manchester University). Her work has been presented at Women International Playwrights curated conferences in Cape Town, Stockholm, Athens and Mumbai. Her plays have been produced in Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. Her political thriller Black Box 149 was part of DFAT’s Australia now Germany program. It was the first time the Staatstheater Nürnberg has produced a play by an Australian playwright. As Told by the Boys Who Fed Me Apples (VCE Drama playlist), supported by an Anzac Centenary Arts and Culture Fund grant, was nominated for an AWGIE Award for Community and Youth theatre. Johns has been shortlisted for the Griffin Playwriting Award and the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition. At the Centre of Light had an extract published in Family, Scenes from a Diverse World (USA). The sell-out play Stray was on the VCE Drama playlist and produced for radio. Tchekov at the House of Special Purpose was inspired by the writer’s trip to the Winter Palace, St Petersburg. Carrying Shoes into the Unknown (VCE Theatre Studies playlist) set in Iran, published Currency Press, has an excerpt in Contemporary Monologues for Young Men and Women: Volume II (Oberon Books, UK).
| Cast Info | 5F, 8M, (doubling available) |
| Genres | Adaptations, Drama |
| Themes | Political/Social themes, Significant female roles, Large Cast |
| Audiences | Adult |
| Extent | 88 |
| Edition | CTS |
| Size | 137 x 210 mm |