Bliss

The water's here, just like us, but soon it'll be flowing past fresh flowers and new grass, and all the way out to the sea. Based on a short story by the brilliant but often overlooked Russian writer Andrey Platonov (1899-1951), Bliss is the tragi-comic tale of a young couple trying to build a life against the odds in the aftermath of the Russian civil war. As ex-soldier Nikita struggles to overcome what we now might recognise as PTSD, the play opens up into a colourful and strangely heart-warming kaleidoscope of stories, song, laughter and magic, as the survivors of years of devastating war and political revolution all strive to comprehend how society can recover from catastrophe, how real love has both passionate and practical faces, and how the future is only built by those who manage to survive their past. This boisterous play is published in Methuen Drama's Lost Plays series, celebrating new plays that had productions postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the global shutdown of theatre spaces.