Boris Godunov

Part of the RSC's A World Elsewhere trilogy of unseen classics from around the world.

Moscow 1598. The great Tsar Ivan the Terrible has died and Boris Godunov reluctantly, humbly takes the throne. But rumours are rife that Boris has secretly murdered the rightful heir and the distant shadow of this prodigal son threatens to close in and take revenge.

Pushkin wrote Boris Godunov, with its beautiful echoes of Shakespeare's Histories and Macbeth, during the political turmoil of the 1820s in Russia.

RSC outgoing Artistic Director Michael Boyd directs a new adaptation by Adrian Mitchell of Alexander Pushkin's play, Boris Godunov. Pushkin is thought by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the father of Russian Literature. He wrote Boris Godunov in 1825, inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth. Its subject is the ruthless Boris Godunov, Tsar from 1598 to 1605, and rumoured to have murdered the Tsarevich Dmitry in order to seize power.

Michael Boyd will direct what will be the culmination of a thread of Russian work he has initiated in the past few years (The Grain Store/The Drunks in 2009). This will be the first time this adaptation has been staged and it was Adrian Mitchell's final project, completed before his death in 2008.

Boris Godunov
NOW PLAYING
Swan Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
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★★★★
‘A rattling good tale’
Times

★★★★
‘Incisively directed by Michael Boyd’
Independent