Performance - Stalin's Master Class

Politics collide with art when “Father of the People” Joseph Stalin and Soviet cultural minister Andrei Zhdanov summon composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich to the Kremlin for a vodka-fueled “music lesson.” Odyssey Theatre Ensemble founding artistic director Ron Sossi directs Stalin’s Master Class, awildly comic, music-filled ride by British playwright David Pownall. Performances runApril 6 through May 26, with three low-priced previews April 3 through April 5.

Can artistic expression be forced to conform to political ideology? In this darkly funny satire, Pownall imagines a chilling encounter — Prokofiev (Jan Munroe) and Shostakovich (Randy Lowell as) aresubjected to the rant and bullying of Stalin (Ilia Volok) and Zhdanov (John Kayton), who accuse the composers of anti-democratic, “formalist” musical tendencies that are alien to the Soviet people and their artistic tastes. “Music that could make a whole population sick!” Post-war Soviet society may be the backdrop for Stalin’s Master Class, but the themes raised about the relationship between art and politics remain universally relevant.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the nature of so-called ‘evil people’,” explains Sossi. “What makes them tick? Do they see themselves as evil, or do they see themselves as doing the right thing? In Master Class, you see a side of Stalin that is very patriotic, a man who wants to resuscitate his country. He wants to get these guys to write music that is more accessible and comforting to the sad survivors of the devastating World War, the children and the old people. The play is very funny, which some might find disturbing, and there’s a lot of great music, all played live. Get ready for a big musical surprise at the end!”

Pownall explained that, in writing Master Class, he wanted to convey the feelings of horror and mockery he felt after reading the minutes of the 1948 Moscow Composers’ Conference held by the Communist party. Although the meeting imagined in the play never actually took place, the composers’ conference and other events make the evening’s goings-on only “too depressingly real.”

The creative team includes music director Nisha Sue Arunasalam; scenic designer Pete Hickock; lighting designer Jackson Funke; sound designer Christopher Moscatiello; costume designer Mylette Nora; props designer Jenine MacDonald; and graphics designer Luba Lukova. The stage manager is Jennifer Palumbo. Beth Hogan produces. Stalin’s Master Class is presented by Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in association with Isabel and Harvey Kibel.

David Pownall (1938–2022) was an award-winning British novelist and playwright who had over 80 radio plays broadcast on the BBC and worldwide, and his work for stage has been produced in many countries throughout the world. During his extensive career, Pownall wrote in a number of different mediums including 13 novels. Written in 1983, Master Class was his best-known play, transferring from the Leicester Haymarket to the Old Vic and then to Wyndham’s in the West End. His book, “Writing Master Class,” is an account of the inception and development of the play, interspersed with twists of his authorial life-story.

Ron Sossi founded the Odyssey Theatre in 1969 to demonstrate that experiment-oriented theater could have populist appeal and be fiscally solvent while maintaining the highest artistic standards, and he has led the company as its artistic director for its entire 55-year history. In 2013, he was honored with the LA Weekly Career Achievement Award, and is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Margaret Harford Award for “demonstrating a continual willingness to experiment provocatively in the process of theater” as well as the LADCC’s Ron Link Award for “consistent quality of direction.” Recent Odyssey directing projects include Elephant Shavings (which he also wrote), Wakings, The Serpent, Faith Healer, Steambath, The Dance of Death, Beckett5, My Sister, Oedipus Machina, Theatre in the Dark (LA Weekly nomination for Best Production of the Year), Way to Heaven (LA Weekly and LADCC nomination for Best Production of the Year), Adding Machine: A Musical, The Arsonists (LA Weekly nomination for Best Direction), Sliding Into Hades (LA Weekly Award for Best Production of the Year), Kafka Thing!, Far Away and The Threepenny Opera.

WHO:
Written by David Pownall
Directed by Ron Sossi
Music Direction by Nisha Sue Arunasalam
Starring John Kayton, Randy Lowell, Jan Munroe, Ilia Volok
Produced by Beth Hogan
Presented by the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Ron Sossi Artistic Director, in association with Isabel and Harvey Kibel

Tickets to performances range from $20 to $40 on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.Performances on Fridays are Pay-What-You-Can (reservations open online and at the door starting at 5:30 p.m.). Previews are priced at $15.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.