What a time to be putting on a play stuffed with Borises. A play that deals with a floundering country and a power struggle at the top. A play about Russia. Peter Morgan, who in The Crown dramatised a family that calls itself the firm, now throws light on firms that call themselves a family. Patriots, conceived before the invasion of Ukraine but no doubt shaded with its consequences, puts on stage the oligarchs who floated Vladimir Putin to power. In doing so it has some frisky nudges at the UK; it also asks fundamental questions about who runs any country: financiers, or politicians.
Morgan’s is a driving drama of clever encapsulation, quick character sketches and dynamic interactions. It brims with information: Boris Berezovsky, the businessman who “used to own the news”, and who, having turned against Putin, ended up hanged in England, is revealed as a maths prodigy, specialising in decision making. Though Patriots covers some of the same ground as Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison (2019), it does not attempt Prebble’s surreal sweep; nor is the dialogue complicated by much psychological intricacy. Yet Rupert Goold’s fascinating production emphasises that there are multiple aspects to the power dealing that fuels the evening.
