Larisa and the Merchants

Description

The Value of Something is Never its Price In a trading town on the banks of the river, penniless Larisa is desperate to marry and escape heartbreak and humiliation. But in this brutal world of transactions true love has no worth. Larisa is up for sale and the local merchants want a bargain. Samuel Adamson's version of Alexander Ostrovsky's rarely seen, sharp and darkly funny play Larisa and the Merchants, premiered at the Arcola in May 2013, produced by InSite Performance.

Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886) was born into a merchant family in Russia. He wrote 40 prose and 8 verse plays. His acknowledged masterpieces are The Storm (1860) and The Forest (1871). Samuel Adamson's plays include: Some Kind of Bliss (Trafalgar Studios), All About My Mother (from Almodovar; Old Vic), Fish and Company (Soho Theatre/National Youth Theatre), Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie (Bush Theatre/Channel 4), Grace Note (Peter Hall Company/Old Vic), Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre) and contributions to the 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), A Chain Play (Almeida Theatre) and Urban Scrawl (TheatreVoice/Theatre 503). Adaptations include: Ibsen's Pillars of the Community and Mrs Affleck, from Ibsen's Little Eyolf, (both at the National Theatre) A Doll's House (Southwark Playhouse); Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (Oxford Stage Company/Riverside Studios) and Three Sisters (OSC/Whitehall Theatre); Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi (Dumbfounded Theatre/Arcola Theatre/Radio 3) and Bernhard Studlar's Vienna Dreaming (National Theatre Studio). Radio includes: Tomorrow Week (Radio 3). Film includes Running for River (Directional Studios/Krug). He was Pearson Writer in Residence at the Bush in 1997-8.

A vibrant and nimble production with a coterie of semi-grotesque characters and uneasy cash-sex nexus highlighted by violent, erotically charged movement to live gypsy music. But when the coarse laughter turns vicious, there's still a pungent whiff of blood and bile. The Times As jubilant as it is tragic. Telegraph A superbly judged, cutting social satire. Whatsonstage Driving energy and sharply defined performances. Guardian