The excellent Michael Stuhlbarg is continuously entertaining in Peter Morgan’s bio-play Patriots, leading the cast as Boris Berezovsky, a Russian-Jewish mathematician and businessman who became one of the original’”and most powerful’”oligarchs in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia of the 1990s, but who fell out of favor with Vladimir Putin, fled to Europe, and ended his life a debt-ridden expatriate in Berkshire, England. The show offers up a narrative sketch of Berezovsky’s life, focusing mostly on the 90s, but also providing brief glimpses into the man’s youth as a math prodigy, and concluding with his later years in self-imposed European exile.
Michael Stuhlbarg as Boris Berezovsky
For those familiar with Yeltsin’s Russia (Paul Kynman has Yeltsin down to a T), Patriots — which opened last night at the Barrymore — in many ways is like an amusement park ride down memory lane, which captures some of the highlights of that decade’s political intrigues, simplified and neatly packaged for thoughtless consumption. But even for those unfamiliar with the political notables of that exciting, hopeful, chaotic and precarious place and time, one character everyone is sure to recognize is Vladimir Putin (cleverly simulated by Will Keen), who is presented as Berezovsky’s creature and invention, a Frankenstein’s monster who in the end usurps his creator.
Will Keen as Vladimir Putin and Luke Thallon as Roman Abramovich
Unlike with Berezovsky, we get to see Putin’s entire character arc, from lowly bureaucrat to all-powerful tyrant. In this sense one could argue that Patriots is more about the current Russian President than about the oligarch who claimed to have put him in power. Unfortunately, one could also make a strong argument that the play, rather than being an artistic work interested in searching for truth and exploring philosophical ideas, is in fact simply a bit of inelegant pro-Berezovsky propaganda whose chief concern is cheap Putin bashing.
Will Keen as Vladimir Putin
The show is often engaging and fun under Rupert Goold’s brisk direction’”Mr. Goold making excellent use of Ash J. Woodward’s effective video projections and Miriam Buether’s eye-catching set. Mr. Morgan’s personages’”highly intelligent and educated men in real life’”discuss topics such as infinity, and the nature of rational and irrational decision making. Characters argue political ideologies and what and who is better for Russia and why. We get lots of Russian details: a voice says “’¦ask any Russian to describe what would bring tears to their eyes if denied it’¦” and then lists a bunch of things, like going mushroom picking and the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky.
The Full Company
There are many more examples and no doubt they all took time to research and were designed to infuse the play with both authenticity and depth. But the philosophical debates never go beyond the obvious, characters are not explored to any satisfaction, and all that stuff about Russia meant to give the audience a sense of how a Russian person feels and thinks, though the specific bits’”like Vysotsky’s songs and mushroom picking’”are accurate in themselves, carry no emotional weight and remain mere decoration. With all its sparkle and ambition, in the end Patriots has little substance and feels more like a true-crime TV show reenactment than a theater piece.
Michael Stuhlbarg as Boris Berezovsky, Ronald Guttman as Professor Perelman
photos by Matthew Murphy
Luke Thallon as Roman Abramovich, Michael Stuhlbarg as Boris Berezovsky
Patriots
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W 47th St
running time 2 hours, 35 minutes
ends on June 23, 2024
for tickets, visit Patriots
