NATALIE HERZEN Eve Best
IVAN TURGENEV Guy Henry
SASHA HERZEN Lewis Crutch/Freddie Hale/Thomas Moll/Greg Sheffield
NURSE Janet Spencer-Turner
ALEXANDER HERZEN Stephen Dillane
TIMOTHY GRANOVSKY Iain Mitchell
NICHOLAS KETSCHER Paul Ritter
KONSTANTIN AKSAKOV Sam Troughton
POLICEMAN Richard Hollis
VISSARION BELINSKY Will Keen
MADAME HAAG Janine Duvitski
KOLYA HERZEN Padraig Goodall/Matthew Thomas-Davies/David Perkins
GEORGE HERWEGH Raymond Coulthard
EMMA HERWEGH Charlotte Emmerson
NICHOLAS SAZONOV Jonathan Slinger
JEAN-MARIE Thomas Arnold
MICHAEL BAKUNIN Douglas Henshall
KARL MARX Paul Ritter
SHOP BOY Dominic Barklem/Alexander Green/William Green/Ashley Jones
NATALIE (NATASHA) TUCHKOV Lucy Whybrow
BENOIT Martin Chamberlain
BLUE BLOUSE John Nolan
MARIA OGAREV Felicity Dean
FRANZ OTTO Paul Ritter
ROCCA Jack James
TATA HERZEN Clemmie Hooton/Alice Knight/Harriet Lunnon/Casi Toy
MARIA FOMM Anna Maxwell Martin
LEONTY IBAYEV John Carlisle
Other parts played by Rachel Ferjani, Jasmine Hyde, Sarah Manton, Jennifer Scott Malden, Nick Sampson, Kemal Sylvester, David Verrey
Director Trevor Nunn
Set, Costume and Video Designer William Dudley
Lighting Designer David Hersey
Associate Director Stephen Rayne
Music Steven Edis
Movement Director David Bolger
Sound Designer Paul Groothuis
Company Voice Work Patsy Rodenburg
CHARACTERS
ALEXANDER HERZEN, a radical writer
NATALIE HERZEN, Alexander’s wife
TATA HERZEN, the Herzens’ daughter
SASHA HERZEN, the Herzens’ son
KOLYA HERZEN, the Herzens’ younger son
NICHOLAS OGAREV, a poet and radical
IVAN TURGENEV, a poet and writer
TIMOTHY GRANOVSKY, a historian
NICHOLAS KETSCHER, a doctor
KONSTANTIN AKSAKOV, a Slavophile
NURSE, a household serf
POLICEMAN
VISSARION BELINSKY, a literary critic
GEORGE HERWEGH, a radical poet
EMMA HERWEGH, his Wife
MADAME HAAG, Herzen’s mother
NICHOLAS SAZONOV, a Russian émigré
MICHAEL BAKUNIN, a Russian émigré activist
JEAN-MARIE, a French servant
KARL MARX, author of The Communist Manifesto
SHOP BOY
NATALIE (NATASHA) TUCHKOV, Natalie’s friend
BENOIT, a French servant
BLUE BLOUSE, a Paris worker
MARIA OGAREV, Ogarev’s estranged wife
FRANZ OTTO, Bakunin’s defence lawyer
ROCCA, an Italian servant
MARIA FOMM, a German nanny
LEONTY IBAYEV, Russian Consul in Nice
The action takes place between 1846 and 1852
at Sokolovo, a gentleman’s estate fifteen miles
outside Moscow; Salzbrunn, Germany;
Paris; Dresden; and Nice
Shipwreck
ACT ONE
SUMMER 1846
The garden of Sokolovo, a gentleman’s estate fifteen miles outside Moscow.
NICHOLAS OGAREV, aged thirty-four, has been reading to NATALIE HERZEN, aged twenty-nine, from a so-called thick journal, the Contemporary. IVAN TURGENEV, aged twenty-eight, is supine, out of earshot, with his hat over his face.
NATALIE Why have you stopped?
OGAREV I can’t read any more. He’s gone mad. (He closes the book and lets it fall.)
NATALIE Well, it was boring anyway.
SASHA HERZEN, aged seven, runs across the garden followed by a NURSE pushing a baby carriage. Sasha has a fishing cane and a jar for tiddlers.
NATALIE (cont.) Sasha, not too close to the river, darling!—(to the Nurse) Don’t let him play on the bank!
The Nurse follows Sasha out.
OGAREV But … it was a fishing rod, wasn’t it?
NATALIE (calling) And where’s Kolya?—(looking aside) Oh, all right, I’ll keep an eye. (resuming) I don’t mind being bored, especially in the country, where it’s part of the attraction, but a boring book I take personally. (looking aside, amused) Far better to spend the time eating marigolds. (glancing at Turgenev) Has he gone to sleep?
OGAREV He didn’t say anything about it to me.
NATALIE Alexander and Granovsky will be back from picking mushrooms soon … Well, what should we talk about?
OGAREV Yes … by all means.
NATALIE Why does it feel as though one has been here before?
OGAREV Because you were here last year.
NATALIE But don’t you ever have the feeling that while real time goes galloping down the road in all directions, there are certain moments … situations … which keep having their turn again? … Like posting stations we change horses at …
OGAREV Have we started yet? Or is this before we start talking about something?
NATALIE Oh, don’t be sideways. Anyway, something’s wrong this year … even though it’s all the same people who were so happy together when we took the house last summer. Do you know what’s different?
OGAREV I wasn’t here last summer.
NATALIE No, it’s not that. Ketscher’s gone into a sulk … grown men squabbling over how to make coffee …
OGAREV But Alexander was right. The coffee is not good, and perhaps Ketscher’s method will improve it.
NATALIE Oh, I’m sure it’s not like Parisian coffee! … Perhaps you’re wishing you’d stayed in Paris.