Oh, what a circus
Country Life UK|June 21, 2023
The idea of misused patriotism is the theme of an intelligent play that features Putin’s rise to power and Giffords is still the best circus in town
Michael Billington
Oh, what a circus

PATRIOTISM, as Dr Johnson famously said, ‘is the last refuge of a scoundrel’. Peter Morgan pushes that idea to its limits in his grippingly intelligent play, Patriots, which opened last year at the Almeida and which has now transferred to the Noël Coward Theatre. If anything, the play has gained even greater resonance with time: when we hear Vladimir Putin denounced as ‘a nationalistic dictator interested in rebuilding a Russian superstate’, we feel a chill of recognition.

The words are spoken by the billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky, whose rise and fall lies at the heart of the play. A mathematical genius in his youth, Berezovsky uses his financial acumen to make a massive fortune and buy political influence in the post-Soviet Russia of the 1990s. He not only controls Boris Yeltsin, he instals in the Kremlin a little-known ex-deputy-mayor of St Petersburg, Putin, whom he sees as a useful puppet. ‘We just need a nice grey executioner of our wishes,’ he tells Yeltsin’s daughter, who sharply replies that the word is ‘executor’.

This leads to a scene at the start of the second act that Shakespeare or Schiller would have understood, as it is about the shifting dynamics of power. It is now 2000, Putin has become president and Berezovsky marches into the Kremlin outraged at the idea that he and his fellow oligarchs should be seen as subordinate to politicians. I was reminded strongly of the moment in Richard III when the kingmaker, Buckingham, comes to claim his due and is brusquely rejected. Not unlike Buckingham, Berezovsky ends up in exile, but the playwright’s point is that both he and Putin see themselves as patriots: Berezovsky seeks to save his beloved Russia through buccaneering capitalism, Putin through a reclamation of lost territory and global power.

Esta historia es de la edición June 21, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición June 21, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
Country Life UK

Kitchen garden cook - Apples

'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'

time-read
2 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
The original Mr Rochester
Country Life UK

The original Mr Rochester

Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre

time-read
5 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
Get it write
Country Life UK

Get it write

Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution

time-read
6 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
'Sloes hath ben my food'
Country Life UK

'Sloes hath ben my food'

A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright

time-read
3 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
Souvenirs of greatness
Country Life UK

Souvenirs of greatness

FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.

time-read
3 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
Plants for plants' sake
Country Life UK

Plants for plants' sake

The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson

time-read
7 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
Capturing the castle
Country Life UK

Capturing the castle

Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker

time-read
6 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
Nature's own cathedral
Country Life UK

Nature's own cathedral

Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods

time-read
5 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
All that money could buy
Country Life UK

All that money could buy

A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages

time-read
8 minutos  |
October 23, 2024
In with the old
Country Life UK

In with the old

Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery

time-read
5 minutos  |
October 23, 2024