A Gulag Mouse

5 F, 1 M
Full length


CHARACTERS

Anastasia - A young war bride. Beautiful and refined.

Masha - Confident, intimidating, brash.

Svetlana - Older than the others, jaded, inured to the suffering around her.

Lubov - Sexy, but tawdry more than pretty - as vulnerable as she can be and still survive in these circumstances.

Prushka - Her nickname is "mouse", which fits perfectly.

Evgeny - The brutal and charming husband of Anastasia.(Double cast with Ivanov).

Ivanov - The teenage son of Anastasia. Maybe only a dream.

Guards - Russian voices. 2 Lines. These could also be pre-recorded along with the necessary sound effects. (Boots marching, etc.)


SETTING

A Siberian gulag in 1949

SYNOPSIS

When privileged Anastasia is sent to a Siberian gulag for the murder of her abusive husband, her arrival destroys the intricate web of hierarchy, alliance and treachery among the other four inmates of her bunkhouse. To save herself, Anastasia must save all of them: the prostitute, the killer, the crone... and Prushka - the mouse.

About A Gulag Mouse

A full length drama in two acts for 5F, 1M

A Gulag Mouse artwork by Grumpy Monkey graphics, used with permission of Babes With Blades

A Gulag Mouse won the JOINING SWORD AND PEN competition, Seattle's OFF-BROADWAY competition and was a finalist for the 2010 inaugural WOODWARD/NEWMAN DRAMA AWARD.

Chicago Theater says A Gulag Mouse is "densely packed with dark suspense, non-stop tension, well-timed action scenes, and black humor precisely placed and played for all its grim power" Read the review by Paige Listerud.

CenterStage recommends A Gulag Mouse as a Must See Show! Read the review by Rory Leahy.

From their press release:
Babes With Blades, with SAFD fight master David Woolley, announced Arthur M. Jolly as the 2009-10 winner of Joining Sword and Pen, their playwriting competition devoted to increasing the number of quality scripts featuring fighting roles for women, on April 8, 2009.
Jolly's script is a drama titled Tjurjága (pronounced Tyoor-YAH-gah, Russian slang for jail), which is set in an inmates' bunkhouse of a Siberian gulag in 1949 post-war Soviet Union.
The winning script was inspired by, and incorporates the image Film Noir by Chicago artist Kristine Borcz (pictured here). Jolly will receive a $1,000 cash prize, and a full production of the script in spring 2010.

  The title was changed to "A Gulag Mouse" during the plays development in concert with the Babes With Blades theatre, and premiered March 29th, 2010 at the Trapdoor Theatre in Chicago.

A monologue from A Gulag Mouse is available to download for free HERE.

A Gulag Mouse is published by Next Stage Press.

 

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