The assassination of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko unfolds on stage nightly, with A Very Expensive Poison premiering at The Old Vic. Starring Tom Brooke as Litvinenko and MyAnna Buring as his wife, Marina, the play is based on Luke Harding’s book of the same name and helmed by John Crowley.
A Very Expensive Poison follows the days leading up and after Litvinenko’s death in 2006. The defector was a whistleblower of the Kremlin’s ties to organized crime living in the U.K. as a naturalized citizen when he was poisoned by Russian security agents.
Read below to see what critics had to say.
The Arts Desk (Rachel Halliburton)
The Evening Standard (Nick Curtis)
The Guardian (Michael Billington)
The Telegraph (Dominic Cavendish)
Time Out London (Andrzej Lukowski)
Also in the cast are Peter Polycarpou, Michael Shaeffer, Lloyd Hutchinson, Thomas Arnold, Callum Coates, Marc Graham, Amanda Hadingue, Yasmine Holness-Dove, Robyn Moore, Sarah Seggari, Reece Shearsmith, Gavin Spokes, and Bea Svistunenko.
The creative team includes set and costume designer Tom Scutt, lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin, sound designer Paul Arditti, choreographer Aletta Collins, and composer Paddy Cunneen.
