Bliss

It’s good to see you’re alive. Good to know not all the ghosts in the streets are enemies...

1921. Russia. Winter. When Nikita returns home from the brutal civil war, he attempts to start a new life with his drunken father Mikhail and his new wife Lyuba, the feisty young girl he remembers from his school days. When Nikita fails to consummate his marriage - all the while aware that he is being haunted by a mysterious figure - escape is the only solution he can find. He finally emerges in a new town further along the Potudan River, only to be accused of an ambiguous crime against the Soviet State...

Based on a short story by the Russian writer Andrey Platonov (1899-1951), Blissis a kaleidoscope of hopes, dreams and realities, as the survivors of years of devastating war and political revolution search for their ’bliss’ in post-war Soviet Russia. They quickly learn that a society needs time to recover from catastrophe, and that the future is only built by those who manage to accept their past.

This edition of Bliss was published alongside the world premiere at the Finborough Theatre, London in May 2022.

Fraser Grace is a multi-award winning playwright whose acclaimed Breakfast with Mugabe (directed for the RSC by Antony Sher) transferred to the West End and won the 2006 John Whiting Award. Other plays include Perpetua (Winner of the Verity Bargate Award), Frobisher’s Gold, The Lifesavers (nominated for the 2009 TMA/Stage Awards) and King David: Man of Blood, described by The Guardian as ’urgent and bang up to date...gripping and exceptionally meaty, delivered with a light touch and a compassion for human fallibility.’