This is a glum, plodding production depicting a grim, hard-hearted world. There is little happiness our young couple can eke out in 1920s Russia, when all around them is a wealth of pain, famine and the ghosts of war.
Fraser Grace has developed Bliss from a 1939 short story by Andrey Platonov, a writer dismissed by Stalin for his harsh depiction of Russia. Lyuba (Bess Roche) is a medical student, bright with expectation. Nikita (Jesse Rutherford) has just returned from war, carrying what he has seen in his tortured eyes and shaking hands. Cloaked in grey, the characters are both hungry and lonely; each gravitates towards the other.
