Tsarist Moscow comes to life in this viciously funny social satire that follows the fortunes of a social climber who finds himself on a ladder of ambition every bit as rotten and hollow as his own collapsing schemes. Taking the timeless plot device of an older woman spurned for a younger girl, The Scoundrel That You Need bounces from satire to farce as the spurned woman seeks her revenge.
Written by Alexandr Ostrovsky, one of Russia’s most revered playwrights, this Melbourne-debut performance is directed by James McCaughey and finds that modern life is not that far removed from 19th Century middle-class Russia.