Mayakovsky and Stalin at Lounge Theatre

Mayakovsky and Stalin

Lounge Theatre
6201 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles

The newest work from legendary poet/playwright Murray Mednick is a dramatic character study incorporating historical footage and photos to explore two distantly connected relationships: that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his wife Nadya, and of Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and his married lover and "muse" Lilya Brik.

Thru - Aug 19, 2018

Price: $15-$25

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 323-469-9988

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Mayakovsky and Stalin Reviews

Average Rating based on 8 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Broadway World - Recommended

"...MAYAKOVKSY AND STALIN won't be for everyone. The dramatized snapshots can feel tediously repetitive without the propulsion of plot and movement to accompany them. But if you're up for a philosophical outing meant to stimulate discourse, this one's for you."

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- Ellen Dostel

LA Splash - Somewhat Recommended

"...MAYAKOVSKY AND STALIN is compelling history offered in the perceptive Mednick style. Unfortunately, however, the nexus between the two men is weak and often feels like the author grasping at straws. In addition, the play is presented more like a staged reading than a classic play. Lined up along the back of the stage are chairs which offer respite to the various actors while they wait for their turn to come forward with their lines."

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- Elaine Mura

Stage Scene LA - Not Recommended

"...Some good actors attempt to breathe life into writer-director Murray Mednick's talky, tedious Mayakovsky And Stalin, the longest two-and-a-half hours I've spent in a theater in years."

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- Steven Stanley

Night Tinted Glasses - Highly Recommended

"...Sometimes I speak of plays as dreams, other times as myths. This play comes across as a poem, an intimate examination of some moments and some people in minute, telling detail--something to learn from, but not by agreeing with what the poet tells you to think. This poet isn't doing that. He bids you look. Listen. Consider. Feel. Which strikes me as especially powerful, if not as linear as some audience members might prefer. Not the audience opening night, though. They applauded as loudly as did I, and with methinks as much gratitude for the experience."

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- David MacDowell Blue

Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended

"...Writer-director Mednick gives us an abstracted, non-linear, and formalized picture of intriguing events in Russian life. He employs a Chorus (Max Faugno) to permit him to speak in his own voice, but the Chorus is also characterized as Kirov, a faithful Stalin follower who's loyal to his master till the master no longer finds him useful, and has him eliminated, like so many before and after him. There is much intellectual debate among the characters, which tends to undermine the dramatic thrust of the piece."

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- Neal Weaver

Discover Hollywood - Recommended

"...In its diffidence towards humanization, Mayakovsky and Stalin does not seem to expect characters to produce depth or personality. It's that lack of emotion that allows us to see its characters as nothing more than a summation of all their philosophies. It is thematically challenging to execute, though Mednick has done it with calculating detachment-much to the benefit of its narrative."

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- Victor Kong

The TVolution - Recommended

"...Whether a commentary on past events or a forewarning of things to come Mednick has nevertheless mounted a solidly-staged, well-crafted production, one that is as impressive as it is challenging."

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- Ernest Kearney

Peoples World - Somewhat Recommended

"...Mednick himself directs and gets the best he can out of his actors, which in many cases is very good indeed; but they are crimped by the overall dramatic conceit. I could see this same material, which did hold my interest up to a point, reworked into a more viable form in a rewrite."

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- Eric A. Gordon