Nearly a million people died in the German army's 1941 siege of Leningrad. The survivors lived under a double burden. Not only had these "lucky ones" experienced terrible things, but they also felt bound to create a better future, so that the sacrifices of those who didn't make it would seem worthwhile.
In Alexei Arbuzov's play teenagers Lika, Marat and Leonidik are first glimpsed in the late winter of 1942, dreaming of a future where they are a doctor, bridge-builder and poet, and falling in love. Out of the ashes of their childhood comes peace. Marat and Leonidik return from the war to find Lika studying to be a medic. But three into two won't go: one of the young men vows to go away forever, leaving Lika to marry the other. Flash forward to the end of 1959 and we see whether they have fulfilled the promise of their youth.
Arbuzov's play, with its study of postwar reconstruction and the post-Stalin era, must have seemed ironic enough on its premiere in 1965, but viewed with the benefit of historical hindsight it is simply heartbreaking. For Lika, Marat, Leonidik and millions of other Soviet citizens, the brave new post-war USSR was a bitter disappointment.
Despite a new English version by Nick Dear, Arbuzov's play still seems as clunky and outdated as a Five Year Plan. In another life Arbuzov would almost certainly have forged a successful career as a script writer for TV soaps, such is his enthusiasm for love triangles and episodic scenes that end with a cliffhanger. These give Nicolas Kent's production a jerky, stop-and-start quality that is exacerbated by the use of a white curtain upon which grainy black-and-white images of the siege are projected. Atmospheric, but perhaps a sign that the drama itself is incapable of conjuring a complete world.
The young cast wrestle manfully to make you care, despite dialogue that is earnest and stilted. Alas, the dialogue wins almost every time.
· Until March 16. Box office: 020-7328 1000.
