Anna Narinskaya’s eye-opening drama reveals the bravery and defiance of women accused of political crimes in Russia who dare to speak out

When speaking of her father, Russian poet Anatoly Naiman (born 1936), in the informative programme, writer Anna Narinskaya said he “embraced his Jewish identity despite the challenges it posed” and she is following his example. She does this most notably in the 2022 documentary, Find a Jew, which she co-wrote with director Igor Sadreev, but also in this extraordinarily powerful drama. The Last Word features testimony from the trials of Russian women convicted of dissent, speaking from the bullet-proof glass booths dubbed ‘cages’, in which they were confined in court. "It is the only remaining place where a person can speak freely", explains Narinskaya, "because there can be physically no censorship". In present-day Russia, the courtroom is the "bastion of freedom of speech… the voices that reach us are the source of truth [about] the conditions in which people live under Putinism".

The text of Narinskaya's play comprises fragments of 'last words' made by nine women daring to speak truth to power, but they symbolise every female voice, so one woman plays them all: Alisa Khazanova, on whose idea the play is based. As it opens, she stands enclosed in a cage represented by the walled confines of the stage. Video projections shift the locale – from courtroom to police transport to detention centre – but at the same time we feel a surreal sense of purgatory, which, the writer says, "we can interpret as being the Russia of today".

The script draws on the words uttered by the caged women, often spoken whilst the text is shown onscreen. A second, male performer, Ivan Ivashkin, supports Khazanova with equal extraordinary physicality. They are directed by fellow Russian Jew Maxim Didenko with all the passion and imagination he brought to Holocaust drama The White Factory at Marylebone Theatre last year.

Projection plays a vital role too, in the effects of designer Pavel Semchenko and video designer Oleg Mikhailov, illuminated by lighting designer Alex Musgrave. Larger-than-life images in blazing colour are thrown onto the walls, which can also be bare and austere as required.

In addition, the visuals provide factual context for the statements. Cameras mounted on the bodies of the actors offer a unique take on movement qualities that range from agonised contortions to empathic tenderness. Composer Vladimir Rannev’s haunting score, both sinister and rousing, adds to the singularity of the total effect.

We hear the stories of the nine women spoken by Khazanova whilst they are named in the projections: journalist Alla Gutnikova, poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya, museum durector Zarifa Sautieva, artists Yulia Tsvetkova and Sasha Skochilenko, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of protest punk band Pussy Riot, activist Anastasia Shevchenko and linguist Yulia Galyamina.

The impact of The Last Word is powerful and the sharing of these testimonies should resonate well beyond the hour audiences spend with such exceptionally courageous and eloquent women.

By Judi Herman

Photos by Sasha Gusov

‍The Last Word runs until Saturday 21 September. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only). From £22.25. Marylebone Theatre, NW1 6XT. marylebonetheatre.com