num_pages: 66
description: A fantastical/political/historical exploration of life in the Soviet Union in the earliest dawn of Perestroika. In scenes ranging from the inner chambers of the Politburo to a secret chamber beneath Lenin’s Tomb to a medical facility near a radioactive disposal site in Siberia, SLAVS! considers the difficulty, the failure, and the abiding importance of Socialism and of ongoing efforts towards building collective societies and a more just world. “The heaven that Tony Kushner envisions in the epilogue of SLAVS!, his bracing, rational 80-minute fantasia is a dark, gloomy place designed to look like a city after an earthquake…he has created a rambunctiously funny, seriously moving stage piece that is part buffoonish burlesque and part tragic satire. From beginning to end, it’s also shot through with the kind of irony virtually unknown in today’s theater, movies and television, where sarcasm passes as wit. There were hints of this exaggerated style in his epic MILLENNIUM APPROACHES and PERESTROIKA, collectively known as ANGELS IN AMERICA… Mr Kushner has emphasized that SLAVS! Is not to be taken as the work of a historian. Rather, it’s a work of a brilliant and restless imagination. Mr Kushner’s words dazzle, sting and prompt belly laughs.”Vincent Canby, The New York Times
language: English
title: Slavs!
titlecomplete: Slavs!
genres: Theatre, Drama, Plays
ratings_count: 91
awards: awardedAt: 788947200000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Drama
publisher: Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.