Review Roundup: CHURCHILL IN MOSCOW at the Orange Tree Theatre

Churchill in Moscow is now playing at Orange Tree Theatre. The cast features Roger Allam as Churchill and Peter Forbes as Stalin, alonge with Alan Cox (Archie Clerk Kerr), Julius D’Silva (Vyacheslav Molotov), Tamara Greatrex (Svetlana Stalin), Jo Herbert (Sally Powell) and Elisabeth Snegir (Olga Dovzhenko)

Everything is possible in Moscow at night. The Kremlin, Moscow, 1942. A top-secret meeting between Winston Churchill (Allam) and Joseph Stalin (Forbes): one, a wealthy aristocrat from a blue-blooded line of English nobility, the other a Georgian peasant, hell-bent on destroying capitalism and the class system. Can they find common ground? As diplomats struggle to control the escalating chaos, two interpreters find themselves caught in the eye of the storm.

The world premiere of Howard Brenton’s gripping drama dramatises the meetings between two unpredictable titans as history teeters on a knife-edge. See what the critics are saying and read the reviews...

 Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: The use of language is clever, with Stalin given a broad West Country burr due to his birthplace in Georgia, then part of South West Russia. The Russians flip between accented English when speaking in English to normal English when talking in their own language. There are also some very amusing moments when the audience hears how Stalin and Churchill sound to each other. In director Tom Littler's intelligent and capable hands, this potentially tricky dialogue is never confusing nor unintelligible.

Mark Lawson, The Guardian: Forbes speaks English with a West Country accent, suggesting Stalin’s strong rural dialect. Allam is properly posh, although, as he plays various Churchills (private/public/as heard by Russians) sensibly plays down the slushy booming of standard impersonations. As the British ambassador, Alan Cox amusingly agonises behind English manners about his boss’s recklessness. Some modern diplomats may empathise. Newcomer Tamara Greatrex is affecting as Stalin’s daughter Svetlana but her not entirely necessary scenes sometimes weaken the ferocious focus of Tom Littler’s staging of an important play by a great theatrical survivor.

Clive Davis, The Times: Peter Forbes is every bit as persuasive as a twinkle-eyed Stalin who lays down his demands in a fruity West Country accent. What gives these opening scenes an unexpected comic sheen is the interaction with the female interpreters Sally and Olga (deftly played by Jo Herbert and Elisabeth Snegir respectively). The whispered asides and mangled phrases symbolise the geopolitical machinations grinding away in the background.

Nick Curtis, London Evening Standard: I love the ideas, the political playfulness and the questing humanity of Brenton’s plays but these things often come at the expense of believable characters. I also like the long-term loyalty here: Littler commissioned several Brenton plays at Jermyn Street Theatre, before taking over the Orange Tree. And quite a lot of famous people clearly love both of them.