King Richard’s Borscht
Politically charged and deeply personal
Fusion of modern puppetry with the rich traditions of Russian theater.
Shakespeare’s Richard III reimagined through the eyes of a family of Ukrainian refugees—each character brought to life using puppets crafted from vegetables.
In a small shed, temporarily safe from the chaos around, a family of refugees is gathered around a large brewing pot. While the parents prepare Ukrainian borscht, the child is trying to read a book, which happens to be "Richard the Third" by William Shakespeare.
Soon the mother and the father are carving out characters from the vegetables in their hands, the cutting boards turn into castles and the potatoes and beets into kings and queens, - as they follow the story of famous Shakespearean villain - through his bloody rise and destined fall - retelling the fate of his unlucky opponents that, one by one, find themselves brewing in the borscht.
Through the world the parents paint, the family temporarily forgets about their own hardships, but their merriment can only last so long as the parallels between Shakespeare's imagination and their real-life circumstances become a little too apparent…