The Leningrad Siege

A clever piece of entertainment - the friends are sensitively and humourously written, translated and acted.

Article by Alasdair Gillon | 17 Mar 2006
With humour, politics, senile dementia and a murder mystery to boot, 'The Leningrad Siege', written by José Sanchis Sinisterra in 1993 and now being performed for the first time in English, is a clever piece of entertainment. Two elderly ladies live in a run-down theatre which once brought the socialist revolution to its audiences through drama. But the founder is long dead, and his widow Priscilla (played by Rosemary McHale) and ex-mistress Natalia (Deirdra Morris) have spent years nurturing the communist dream, trying to figure out his death and searching for a lost script – The Leningrad Siege – which they hope can save them from modern property developers. With memory loss, petty squabbling and their dogged attachment to principles, the friends are sensitively and humourously written, translated and acted. McHale and Morris even manage to suggest a peculiarly English eccentricity, which blends seamlessly into this enjoyable adaptation of Sinisterra's original Spanish-language scenario. [Alasdair Gillon]
Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Feb 16-18.