Overview

Venichka Erofeev (Venya), cultured alcoholic, self-mocking intellectual, regales us with an account of his 'heroic' odyssey from Moscow to provincial Petushki. Stories of his rich, turbulent inner life abound as he staggers through Brezhnev's Moscow and encounters dangerous, eccentric and often hilarious strangers on a train. His journey ends when fate cruelly intervenes - curtailing the vivid panorama of Russian life that we have seen through Venya's eyes. Stephen Mulrine's adaptation for one actor of Erofeev's cult novel has been highly acclaimed on BBC Radio 3, at the Edinburgh Festival, London's West End, and New York in Tom Courtenay's 'blissfully funny' performance.