Review: THE ANARCHIST by Karina Wiedman at Jermyn Street Theatre until 30 July 2022

‘The evening belongs to Scarlett Brookes, who is incandescent … embodying desperate resistance and unquenchable spirit’ ★★★★

Belarus declared itself a sovereign State on 27 July 1990. A constitution was adopted in March 1994 in which the functions of prime minister were given to the President of Belarus.  Presidents would be elected for a five-year term, with a limit of two terms.  Alexander Lukashenko was elected.

Lukashenko was officially re-elected in 2001, in 2006, in 2010, in 2015 and again in 2020, although none of those elections were considered free or fair nor democratic. Two-term limits were for other people. Corruption, human rights abuses, brutal beatings and imprisonment for political rivals, earned Lukashenko the title ‘Last Dictator in Europe’. The Anarchist tells the story of one girl’s opposition to his dictatorship through the medium of Western rock music, sex and drugs, Levi jeans, and Molotov Cocktails.

Scarlett Brookes plays the girl, Dasha. Elizabeth Snegir and Ojan Genc play her mother, her lovers, her tormentors, her betrayers, and passers-by, fellow passengers, newsagents. The city of Minsk is well populated by the pair of actors. It is Dasha’s story, told compellingly and desperately by Scarlett Brookes. Conflict is shown in stylised, balletic passages in flickering half-light, Brookes becomes more and more dishevelled, smeared with oil, betrayed, bereaved – the dreams of a post-Soviet democracy in which you could get decent cigarettes, perfume, Sonic Youth cd’s – those dreams are savagely ripped apart by Lukashenko’s goons, until anarchy, a political term that gets interpreted and re-interpreted through the course of the play, comes down to its most common definition – bomb thrower.

Karina Wiedman has written an angry, compelling play, Ebenezer Bamgboye directs with great style and economy, the two support actors are excellent, defining a multitude of characters effectively and movingly, but the evening belongs to Scarlett Brookes, wo is incandescent.  She is a human Molotov Cocktail, engulfing the audience, embodying desperate resistance and unquenchable spirit.  It's a performance in a thousand, and it deserves to be seen.

Photography: Steve Gregson.

ANARCHIST

Presented by Woven Voices

at Jermyn Street Theatre

6 – 30 July 2022

Box Office: https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/the-anarchist/

Scarlett Brookes

DASHA

Elisabeth Snegir

KATYA/ENSEMBLE

Ojan Genc

JOE/ENSEMBLE

Reviewer: Chris Lilly