The White Guard

Synopsis

his overcoat is neutral darling, neither Bolshevik nor Menshevik. Just essence of Prole. In Kiev during the Russian Civil War, the Turbin household is sanctuary to a ragtag, close-knit crowd presided over by the beautiful Lena. As her brothers prepare to fight for the White Guard, friends charge in from the riotous streets amidst an atmosphere of heady chaos, quaffing vodka, keeling over, declaiming, taking baths, playing guitar, falling in love. But the new regime is poised and in its brutal triumph lies destruction for the Turbins and their world. And those are the real enemies we face, deep in the shadows. This modern man with no name, no past, no love. This desperate hate-filled man born of loneliness and frustration. This man with nothing to be proud of, nothing he is part of...

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 24 March 2010

The British theatre has done well by the brilliant plays of Mikhail Bulgakov, but it is thirty years since the RSC staged The White Guard; Howard Davies’ superb National Theatre revival, in a fleet, funny and idiomatic new version by Andrew Upton (from a literal translation by Charlotte Pyke) is a major event.

The play, also known as The Day of the Turbins, is set in the aftermath of the October Revolution in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, where a puppet German government, led by the Hetman (Anthony Calf) is poised between the resistance of the crushed intelligentsia, the White Guard, and the in-coming might of the Bolshevik Red Army.

The apartment of Turbin siblings – two brothers, Nikolai (Richard Henders) and Alexei (Daniel Flynn), and their sister Elena (Justine Mitchell) – is the rallying point and social focus for the local war effort, though Elena’s husband, Talberg (Kevin Doyle) has been appointed ...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 15 June 2010:

Apparently Stalin was a fan of Bulgakov's The White Guard which seems a bit surprising until you remember he was a Georgian who presumably enjoyed the portrayal of Ukrainians as weak, divided and cowardly. Howard Davies directs Andrew Upton's vivid adaptation and Bunny Christie provides a series of astonishing sets which fully utilise the technical capabilities of the National. The story of the shifting sands of Russia and the Ukraine at the end of World War One and the Bolshevik revolution are brilliantly (and very noisily) conveyed and surprisingly often very funny. Actually the middle scenes set during the battles and as the Hetman flees to Germany are a bit too close to an episode of Blackadder. It's the opening and closing scenes in the apartment of the Tsarist Turbin family which are most memorable as they are forced to confront loss, both of family and their nation, as they try to make the best of a future which will deny them freedom. Conleth Hill has a touch too much of Liberace to be entirely believable as a seducer of women but Justine Mitchell provides a warm and deeply emotional Elena. Not quite as good as Burnt By the Sun but The White Guard is the latest in a series of excellent political history plays on the South Bank....

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