A NOVEL BANNED BY THE
SOVIETS TAKES THE STAGE

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884 - 1937) was a Russian essayist, playwright, novelist and naval engineer. Initially a Bolshevik, he rejected the party that insisted all art must be useful to its movement. In response to the regime's imposed conformism, Zamyatin declared:

“True literature can exist only where it is created, not by diligent and trustworthy functionaries, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics.”

Zamyatin’s ground-breaking 1920 novel We pioneered the dystopian genre and sparked iconic works like Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. Despite being banned by the Soviets, it was smuggled out of Russia and made its debut in the U.S. in 1924.

Journey 1,000 years into the future to the “One State”, a society governed by technological efficiency, mathematical logic, and the suppression of individuality. We is the story of the chief engineer of a new space shuttle with a mission to spread the One State’s authoritarian regime across the universe. The engineer’s plans, perception of himself and the “mathematically perfect” state he reveres unravel when he meets a woman who dares to question the status quo.

Live acting, shadow puppetry, and video projections collide in this expressive production that vividly brings Zamyatin’s dystopian world to life on stage!