Sochi 2014

Keeping an eye on recent news from Russia has been like following the escapades of the world’s most homophobic Bond villain. Surely, then, satirising Moscow’s chilling new anti-gay legislation via the medium of verbatim theatre ought to be the easiest thing in the world?  

Ironically, the blatant injustices of the Putin regime make sending it up all the more difficult. Or rather, slightly pointless, as all the work’s been done for you. When, in Tess Berry-Hart’s play, we hear a Russian official expressing his opinion that gay people ‘spend their days in idleness and live off strange income from art shows’, there’s no punchline necessary – you simply let it hang in the air while the audience gasps, facepalms and makes a mental note to kick Vlad the Impaler in the balls at the earliest opportunity.

Along with the Kremlin’s top brass, we also hear accounts of persecuted Russian LGBT people. Although the barebones staging of director David Mercatali’s production means it’s occasionally difficult to keep track of who’s playing who, their word-for-word plight is delivered tragically and tenderly.

Still, as topical as ‘Sochi 2014’ may be (the press night took place just hours after the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony), it doesn’t really add much to the conversation about Russia’s controversial Games, it simply gathers together its most heinous, unsettling bits and lets the bigotry speak for itself.

Which works fine as a digest for anyone who’s not been following the story, but given that this is a show more likely to attract audiences with an interest in LGBT rights, it’s easy to see ‘Sochi 2014’ leaving some of them cold.