The Suicide

Semyon is unemployed and broke. It is very bad and not a laughing matter. The Government can’t help. In fact the Government is part of the problem. He has an idea that the answer to his problems might be to learn the tuba. But to learn the tuba he needs a piano. He can’t afford a piano. So he decides to kill himself. And then his problems really begin! Out of this dark situation, one of the 20th century’s greatest satirists – Nikolai Erdman – fashioned a comic masterpiece that is one of the jewels of the Russian stage. The Suicide was so near the bone, the Soviet Government banned the play for half a century and sent Erdman to Siberia. But the play survived. Come and see if Semyon does too.