A tough but tender portrait of urban squalor, from the award-winning Siberian-born author of Plasticine.

Dima, 19, lives with his alcoholic father. The night before he leaves for the war in Chechnya to do his national service, he throws a party. Lera, 20, lives in the same block. She's convinced that she'll win a fortune if only she can borrow enough money for a lottery ticket. Lera's cousin Yulka, 18, is more interested in seeing just how far Dima will go to prove his devotion to her.

Vassily Sigarev's play Ladybird was first performed in this English translation by Sasha Dugdale at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2004.

* Premieres March 2004 at London's Royal Court Theatre

About the Author
Vassily Vladimirovich Sigarev is a Russian playwright, screenwriter and film director. His plays Plasticine, Black Milk and Ladybird were first produced in the West by the Royal Court Theatre. Sasha Dugdale is a translator and poet. She has translated the work of many leading contemporary playwrights writing in Russian, including: Bad Roads (Royal Court Theatre, 2017) and The Grain Store (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2009) by Natal'ya Vorozhbit; Playing the Victim (Royal Court and Told By an Idiot, 2003) and Terrorism (Royal Court, 2003) by the Presnyakov Brothers; and Ladybird (Royal Court, 2004), Black Milk (Royal Court, 2003) and Plasticine (Royal Court, 2002) by Vassily Sigarev. She has published three collections of translations of Russian poetry and five collections of her own poetry, most recently Deformations (Carcanet, 2020). In 2016 she won a Forward Prize for her long poem 'Joy', and in 2017 she received a SOA Cholmondeley Award for poetry. She has published two collections of translations of Russian poetry and three collections of her own poetry, Notebook (2003), The Estate (2007) and Red House (2011). In 2003 she received an Eric Gregory Award.

Reviews

'Compelling... a powerful expression of modern Russia's struggle to free itself from its Soviet past... the fire in Sigarev's belly is in no danger of going out'

* The Times *

'Belongs in the great tradition of Gorkyesque realism... grippingly persuasive... Sasha Dugdale's translation is faultless'

* Guardian *



Book Information
ISBN 9781854597885
Author Vassily Sigarev
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books
Weight(grams) 93g
Dimensions(mm) 200mm * 130mm * 8mm