Terrorism

Delayed passengers grumble about a bomb scare at the airport. A man and a woman commit adultery. Office workers bicker while one of their number quietly exits to hang herself. Two grannies in a playground complain about their menfolk and make fun of a man seated on the next bench. Policemen in their barracks scrap amongst themselves. The passengers on the plane finally prepare for take off.

By the end we realise these apparently random scenes are in fact linked by an almost invisible thread, subtly indicating that we bear responsibility for one another even in our soulless urban limbo

Terrorism paints a picture at once familiar and strange, deftly depicted with minimal means and depressingly informative about the moral bankruptcy of the new Russia, it comes from the same stable as the immensely impressive Plasticine and Black Milk

'A play with this title has an obvious resonance right now. But the extraordinary thing about this deft and brilliant piece by Siberia's Presnyakov Brothers is the way it extends ... This is a play about the breakdown of society in contemporary Russia. What astonishes is the cool, sardonic wit that the Presnyakov brothers bring to their task ... beautifully realised in Sasha Dugdale's translation ... Russian society may be in disarray, but, on the evidence of this and the recent work of Vassily Sigarev, a sense of dislocation yields first-rate drama' - Guardian

'A bitter, funny, penetrating look at the toxic effects of living with fear. Terrorism isn't about victims or perpetrators or one savage act. It's a series of takes on a society broken by horror and suspicion, turning against itself ... Terrorism shrugs off more ideas in quarter of an hour's wit than most political debating plays do in an evening' - Observer