ABOUT THE PLAY

 

James Goldman's play Tolstoy is a domestic drama that chronicles the tumultuous final year of Leo Tolstoy's life in 1910, focusing on a bitter, "battle-to-the-death" conflict over his financial and literary legacy. 

 

The plot centres around a vicious three-way ideological and financial struggle.

Leo Tolstoy is an elderly man enduring a severe crisis of meaning. He desperately wants to live out his radical, ascetic Christian anarchist beliefs by renouncing his wealth, giving away his property, and making the copyrights to his famous novels free to the public.

Countess Sofya (his wife) is his devoted but fiercely protective spouse who acted as the midwife and transcriber of his greatest works. She aggressively fights to keep the copyrights and estate within the family to secure the financial future of their children. 

Vladimir Chertkov (his disciple) is Tolstoy's fanatical, possessive friend and editor. He manipulates the aging author into signing a secret will, wanting complete control over Tolstoy's diaries and late philosophical works to propagate the "Tolstoyan" movement. 

 

 

 

CAST & CREATIVE

 

Leo Tolstoy -  F. Murray Abraham

Sonya - Gemma Jones

Chertkov - Matthew Marsh

Tanya - Judith Scott

Leo L. Tolstoy - Adrian Lukis

Sasha - Catherine Kanter

Dushan - John Grillo

Petya - Jim Wiggins

Gypsy Girl - Sioned Jones

Stationmaster - Alan Leith

Housekeeper - Katherine Stark

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Author - James Goldman

Director - Jack Hofsiss

Designer - Tanya McCallin

Lighting Designer - Ian Sommerville

Sound Designer - Ilona Sekacz