The Play Company presents the U.S. premiere of renowned playwright Stefano Massini’s Intractable Woman: A Theatrical Memo on Anna Politkovskaya, directed by Lee Sunday Evans (Dance Nation, PlayCo’s Caught) and translated by Paula Wing. The production, Massini’s U.S. debut, follows vast acclaim—from The New York Times, Variety, The Guardian, and others—for the National Theatre’s new production of Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes.
Intractable Woman tell the story of journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in Moscow in 2006 after spending the previous seven years exposing government suppression and the atrocities of war in Chechnya. Staged at a moment when even the U.S. constitutional protection of a free press feels precarious, and swelling numbers of journalists are being jailed and even killed for their work worldwide, Intractable Woman is a vital display of the indispensability of journalism in the face of a government that views it as an enemy force to stifle.
While Intractable Woman is layered with vivid cultural detail surrounding a life that was taken over a decade ago, Politkovskaya’s story also brims with immediacy and universality. In Evans’s production, three actors—Nadine Malouf (PlayCo’s Oh My Sweet Land; queens at LCT3), Nicole Shalhoub (China Doll on Broadway; The Clean House at Lincoln Center Theater), and Stacey Yen (PlayCo’s Enjoy; Miles for Mary at Playwrights Horizons)—will deliver this interpretation of her experiences reporting on and living within the Second Chechen war. Theatre cannot resurrect the dead, but it can tap into the desires that compelled them in life—and Intractable Woman mines Politkovskaya’s uncompromising desire to unveil the truths behind authoritarian power. Massini’s take on Politkovskaya, inspired by her life and her writing, illuminates the resilience it takes to question governments simply by stating facts.
PlayCo is unique in its commitment to producing an international program of new plays, from both the U.S. and around the world, to advance a dynamic, global experience of contemporary theater and expand the American repertoire. The production marks a U.S. debut for Massini, a prominent Italian writer, director, and artistic head of Milan’s renowned Piccolo Teatro. Massini’s play offers a window into the political landscape of Putin’s Russia, the ravages of the Second Chechen War, and Chechnya under the authoritarian rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, approaching all forms of sociopolitical detail with wrenching clarity.
Tickets: http://playco.org/tickets/
Special offer code ICI30 (for $30 tickets to performances 9/13-9/25, excluding 9/20 and 9/23)