Picture the scene It’s 1949. The Cold War is starting to heat up, and the leader of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, is sat in his summer home outside of Sochi, Russia. He’s re-watching one of his favourite films with his loyal cinema minister, Ivan Bolshakov. ‘Red River’, starring the one and only John Wayne. He's been drinking, and starts shouting out the lines and re-enacting his favourite scenes from the film Then suddenly he exclaims "I WANT JOHN WAYNE DEAD!"
But. What if things had happened differently? What if Stalin had been watching a different film at the time? 'Rocky IV' perhaps? What if Stalin decides that the only way to settle things with John Wayne, and end the Cold War, is with a no-holds barred boxing match against Wayne, the Duke himself? What if they somehow find common ground? Fall in love, even?
A Western film on the Pinter stage. A boxing match between the two biggest superpowers ever known. But more than that, this is a tender love story about finding your soulmate in the most unlikely of places
Written and directed by CHRISTOPHER FIELD
Cast: Joseph Stalin - Andrew Bourne John Wayne - Cameron Szerdy Ivan Bolshakov - Danny Santos Jimmy Grant - Beth Graham Ensemble - Alice Wilson, Lydia Williams, Rebecca Sangs, Rhea Doshi, Melissa Rutnagur AND Cora Katz
