RASPUTIN'S MOTHER
Michael's full-length stage play Rasputin's Mother was named the overall winner of the 2012-13 National Playwriting Competition.
Funded by the prestigious Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation in honour of one of the original co-founders of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, the award is made annually to the best script written for the stage.
Funded by the prestigious Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation in honour of one of the original co-founders of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, the award is made annually to the best script written for the stage.
Synopsis
On December 19, 1916, the body of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was dragged from the frozen Malaya Nevka river in St Petersburg. His bound hands were clenched in fists of fury, as if he had been scraping at the ice from below, despite having already been beaten, shot and hounded into the freezing grave of the St Petersburg waterways.
But what if the body was not Rasputin’s? What if it was, instead, one of the doubles he had used in life to protect himself, planted by the secret police to create the myth of Rasputin’s murder and, ultimately, bring about the collapse of the Romanov empire with which he was inextricably bound?
What if Grigory Efimovich – Grishka – lived on as a prisoner inside the walls of the St Peter and St Paul Fortress, destined to watch the rise of the Communists and the assassination of his beloved Alix while replaying in his mind the glory years at the start of a century of violence and terror that he himself had unwittingly helped to shape?
In 1936, a keen young researcher is personally detailed by Stalin to document Rasputin’s first-hand account of the fall of the Romanovs. Given unprecedented access to the fascinating prisoner, the student learns the truth about Grishka and the women in his life – but also discovers that the truth can be a dangerous commodity.
But what if the body was not Rasputin’s? What if it was, instead, one of the doubles he had used in life to protect himself, planted by the secret police to create the myth of Rasputin’s murder and, ultimately, bring about the collapse of the Romanov empire with which he was inextricably bound?
What if Grigory Efimovich – Grishka – lived on as a prisoner inside the walls of the St Peter and St Paul Fortress, destined to watch the rise of the Communists and the assassination of his beloved Alix while replaying in his mind the glory years at the start of a century of violence and terror that he himself had unwittingly helped to shape?
In 1936, a keen young researcher is personally detailed by Stalin to document Rasputin’s first-hand account of the fall of the Romanovs. Given unprecedented access to the fascinating prisoner, the student learns the truth about Grishka and the women in his life – but also discovers that the truth can be a dangerous commodity.
For more information
If you would like to know more about the play Rasputin's Mother, or to read the script, please contact Michael.
