Firebird by Richard Hugh - The King's Head Theatre, Islington, London until 09 February 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit – Steve Ullathorne.

Firebird by Richard Hugh – based on the screenplay by Peter Rebane & Tom Prior & the memoir by Sergey Fetison. The King's Head Theatre, Islington Square, Upper Street, Islington, London until 09 February 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“A tale well told.”

Set in Russia during the Cold War when Brezhnev was in power and Afghanistan was about to be invaded two young men in the armed forces – fighter pilot Roman and Sergey, a young private doing his national service – meet one New Year's eve and fall in love. Director Owen Lewis keeps events flowing but there is an awful lot of chair and table shifting and people rushing off carrying no longer needed props as well as the obligatory amount of flesh bared at regular intervals, something it seems required of pretty every well play about the love that nowadays shouts its name from the rooftops. Sergey, who wants to be an actor, finishes his service and ends up in Moscow where he again meets Roman, who now has a desk job and a two bedroom apartment, the perfect place for them to set up house. However, life is more complicated than that. Luisa, a young Estonian who works for their surprisingly understanding patriarch of a commanding officer, Colonel Kuznetsov – a nicely grave performance from Nigel Hastings even if one feels he is doing more than most commanding officers would do for their men. Roman is, we discover, when Louisa turns up out of the blue to stay in the flat is to our andSergey's surprise, married to her. Sorcha Kennedy makes the betrayed Louisa credible and the two leads, undeniably easy on the eye, give nicely judged performances as two very different men surviving at a very difficult time and all that time in the gym has undeniably been time well spent. Things do not end happily ever after but finding out how they end is worth spending time . Maybe Roman's dilemma could have been more deeply examined, but it is a tale well told although the significance of the firebird legend gets lost somewhere along the telling.

Cast

Robert Eades - 2nd Lieutenant Roman Matveliev

Nigel Hasting – Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov

Sorcha Kenned – Luisa Jannsen

Theo Walker – Private Sergey Serebrennikov

Creatives

Director – Owen Lewis

Designer – Gregor Donnelly

Lighting – Clancy Flynn

Sound & Composition – Jac Cooper

Intimacy Coordination – Jess Tucker Boyd

Fight Director – Maisie Carter.