His music made him. It could destroy him.
At the height of Stalin’s regime, celebrated composer Dmitri Shostakovich walks a perilous tightrope. One wrong note could topple him; one perfectly judged crescendo might save his life.
Under the constant threat of torture and death, he must appease a brutal despot – while quietly resisting him.
Outwardly compliant, inwardly defiant, Shostakovich composes in code: music that conceals as much as it reveals.
Holy Fool is a tense, darkly witty exploration of the absurdity of tyranny, the bravery of resistance and the triumph of the human spirit.