Pushkin, a new verse play written by Jonathan Leaf, examines the final two-years in the life of Russia’s most enduring poet, Alexander Pushkin. Always quick to take offense, delusionally jealous, forever in debt, and censored by Tsar Nicholas I, Pushkin chronicles the sufferings of an artist of modest rank and mixed race, the confrontation between his exceptional talent and a flawed society, and the painful choice between duty and personal happiness. In his struggles to end serfdom and reform his homeland, Pushkin, Russia’s first literary superstar, raised his voice above exile and censorship to turn his art into a substitute for politics poetically declaring, “Autocratic miscreant, Thee, thy throne I detest.”

THE BOTTOM LINE: The American Vicarious colorful production of Pushkin captures the imagination and leaves you yearning for freedom. Those who thrive on court intrigues, political riddles and affairs of pistols will appreciate Jonathan Leaf’s dramatic rendition of Pushkin’s life. WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Set in St. Petersburg, Pushkin dramatizes the liberal thoughts and life of a poet who struggles to remain loyal to the Czar while wrestling with his own efforts to be free. He is challenged. “Prove on your birthday that you are free.” And he does. By the end of the play, even if he is not granted permission to leave Tsar Nicholas’ court, he has become the freedom voice for the Serves, and that is indeed a proof of freedom. He remains as the Tsar’s court poet, his personal “project” and “hope” as he calls him, yet Pushkin feels like “a kingdom’s clown” as he also struggles with freedom on the domestic front due to a love affair with no less than his wife’s intellectual sister, Alexandra for whom he writes: “In the moon light passing low I will keep you free in my arms.” CAST & CREW: Jonathan Leaf (Playwright)… Perhaps the strongest asset of the play is Leaf’s ability to present Pushki …Read more