Lenin’s Embalmers, by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen, kicks off the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s 2010/11 season later this month.
Thiessen’s work is inspired by the non-fiction book Lenin’s Embalmers, by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson. Although the piece deals with many issues, Thiessen focuses on Lenin’s embalming and takes huge liberties by fictionalizing it.
“The play takes place in 1924,” says the Winnipeg-born playwright, who moved to New York City three years ago with his partner, Susie Moloney, a horror novelist.
“It’s the story of two Jewish scientists who are pegged by Joseph Stalin to embalm Vladimir Lenin or face death,” Thiessen says.
The dark, absurdist comedy is based on the true story of Vladimir Vorobiov and Boris Zbarsky, Lenin’s real embalmers.
“I found it incredibly ironic that the two scientists that were doing this were Jewish and that Lenin was also part Jewish, and, although not terribly religious people, normally they would be putting these people in the ground within 24 hours, let alone trying to make them live forever.”
Thiessen said the protagonists in the play are torn between their loyalties to each other, their science and their cultural background, somewhat.
Although Thiessen, one of Canada’s most produced playwrights, is not Jewish, he’s written on Jewish themes a lot. He says his Jewish friends are convinced that if he did DNA testing, he’d find roots back to a shtetl somewhere.
“Personally, the story had a great interest to me, because my parents grew up in the southern Ukraine,” says Thiessen. “I’m of Mennonite origins, and both my grandfathers were taken away to concentration camps in their early ’30s during one of the Stalinist purges. The cultural aspect of the play, the time period and why I wrote the play is really a testament to my grandparents and to my parents and their survival underneath that system.”
Another reason he devoted a couple of years to the project was his interest in the scientific aspects of it. Lenin’s embalming was quite the feat of science at the time.
Thiessen received a commission from the Sloan Foundation in the United States, which funds artistic ventures dealing with science themes, and he made a connection with New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, where the play premiered in March 2010 to critical acclaim.
This production marks the Canadian premiere and is a co-production with the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (WJT). It’s directed by Geoffrey Brumlick and stars James Durham, David Fox, Martin Julien, Hardee T. Lineham, Arne Macpherson, Harry Nelken, Steven Ratzlaff and Janine Theriault.
The playwright had numerous offers from other companies wanting to produce Lenin’s Embalmers, including the Stratford Festival. He choose Harold Green and the WJT because they were the most passionate, and he said he’s thrilled about his decision after seeing the cast in rehearsal in Winnipeg.
Next spring, Lenin’s Embalmers will be produced by Theatre Artists Studio in Phoenix, Ariz. It’s also been optioned for translation into Polish for a production in Warsaw and into Hebrew for a production in Tel Aviv.
Thiessen has written for radio, television and the stage. His plays – which include Shakespeare’s Will, Apple, Einstein’s Gift, Blowfish, The Resurrection Of John Frum and Vimy – have been produced across North America and Europe.
When not working, Thiessen, who has won numerous awards, including the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, and the Governor General’s Literary Award, enjoys being a sports fan. He roots for the New York Mets baseball team and is an Edmonton Oiler hockey fan, because of a loyalty to the city where he spent much of his adult life.
Lenin’s Embalmers runs at the Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave., Toronto from Oct. 30 to Nov. 21. Buy tickets at 416-366-7723 or online at www.hgjewishtheatre.com.
