Phil Davis, Ruth Wilson and Rory Kinnear on playing Philistines.
Phil Davis plays Vassily, a father outraged by the progressive attitudes of his children Tanya and Pyotr, played by Ruth Wilson and Rory Kinnear.
Rehearsal photo by Catherine Ashmore
Phil Davis on Vassily
Unquestionably the most unpleasant character in the play. A greedy, corrupt, anti-Semitic patriarch who rules his family with a rod of iron. An uneducated man whose decorating business has made him relatively well off. He has, at great expense, educated his children and now feels that they look down their noses at him, and he cannot understand their lack of purpose. This is a man defined by fear. He's worked hard to make a good life for himself and he's terrified that at any moment all that he's built could be snatched away. A glorious character. I love him.
Rehearsal photo by Catherine Ashmore
Ruth Wilson on Tanya
Tanya has more than most: education, wealth, independence and choice. But she lacks one thing – love. Caught within a family that cannot express love, Tanya's search for that affection and attention becomes more desperate. The tragedy is that “no-one will ever love Tanya the way she wants” because she strives for something that is unobtainable. Tanya is thus left permanently dissatisfied with – and distant from – the world around her. The more she refuses to recognise and reconcile her flaws, the less are her chances of finding what she desires.
Rehearsal photo by Catherine Ashmore
Rory Kinnear on Pyotr
Pyotr, three years into his university law degree, has been suspended for supposed revolutionary activity and is back living with his parents and sister until his appeal is heard. As a result his great struggle through the play is between what those around him want and remember him to be, and how he sees himself: his new hopes, ambitions and philosophy. Someone who was ready to fly the nest has been shoved back in it, and his great fear is that he might be stuck there flapping around, unable to do what he really wants – whatever that may be – for a long, long time.
