Churchill in Moscow review: Stalin and British Bulldog’s atmospheric WW2 booze up

Half a century on from The Churchill Play and Howard Brenton has returned to the subject matter of the Prime Minister.

Churchill in Moscow is set during the British Bulldog’s first meeting with Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union from August 12-15 1942 when the communist dictator’s patience was seriously waning.

Uncle Joe was desperate for Great Britain and FDR’s USA to open a second European front in the fight against Hitler, whose forces were now fiercely engaged with the Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad.

However, planned to persuade him of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, to pierce the “soft underbelly of Europe.”

This atmospheric production recreates the heated conversations between the two titans by performing their interactions up close, “in the round” at the intimately sized Orange Tree Theatre.

Roger Allam masterfully captures the complexity of Churchill’s character, starting off sulky and ill-tempered before the jovial wit comes out when the heavy drinking of vodka shots and chewing of suckling pig is in full swing. Opposite him is Peter Forbes’ Stalin, who is just as convincing in portraying the layers of the tyrant, switching with ease between buoyant cheer and sledgehammer fury at a moment’s notice.

The culture clash between the pair of unlikely allies is examined throughout with a sharp focus on their class differences, from Churchill’s aristocratic entitlement to Stalin’s peasant upbringing, accompanied in this play by the choice of a West Country accent. Their differences are further explored through an impressive supporting cast of Alan Cox’s British ambassador Kerr and Julius D’Silva’s Molotov in their toilet-side verbal sparring, in-between bouts of drunken vomiting.

Meanwhile, the fictional female interpreters find more in common than they at first might have thought, while scenes with Stalin’s daughter reading David Copperfield are somewhat distracting from the main plot. And then there’s Brenton’s script daring to compare Churchill’s handling of the Indian Famine with Stalin’s monstrous kulak genocide. As though the British Empire’s failings are somehow on par with the evil totalitarian rule of Stalin’s iron fist? That one really is for the birds. Leaving this misstep aside, overall, there is some seriously good acting on display here, and in such a close-up auditorium, this is not to be missed.

Churchill in Moscow is performed at Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until March 8 and can be streamed March 11-14.