Виктор
Калитвянский

The two acts, two male roles, one for women, 1.5 hours

Grand Prix at the international Russian-language dramatic competition "Free Theater 2010"

 

The play was published in Russian journal "Modern Drama" № 3 of 2010.

 

The play staged in the theater "Comedy" in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in the studio of the Theatre Union of Russia in 2011.

     A gas-fitter shows up at the doorstep of a local politician, who is also a political science professor at the local university. The man was not expecting a visit from the gas company – he was expecting a visit from his lady friend…

     Being by nature inquisitive and chatty, the master of the house, or Chief, engages the Guest in conversation while the man works. The guest turns out to be an ex-army officer and all-around an interesting fellow. Chief gets the impression that the man could aspire to more than a job with the gas company.

    The Guest, meanwhile, sets to questioning Chief about the current political situation in the country, eventually shifting the conversation to the disquieting subject of secret police informers and what ought to be done with them.

     The lady will be here any minute now, but the gas-fitter shows no sign of leaving. It turns out that he is not a gas-fitter at all: he’s a state security officer, come to check up on an old informer, - namely, Chief – who had been recruited many years ago by Nikolai, a mutual acquaintance of theirs.

     When the lady shows up, the Guest has to conceal himself in the bedroom.

     The lady, who is the professor’s girlfriend but someone else’s wife, came to tell her lover that she’s breaking things off between them, and that she intends to stay with her husband. Shocked and wounded to the quick, Chief attempts to dissuade her but fails. The lady leaves, but not before noticing on the Chief’s coat-hanger a jacket she’d never seen in that apartment before.

     After she leaves, the Guest resumes their discussion by beating up his host. It becomes clear that the professor’s girlfriend was, in fact, his wife.

     After the beating, the Guest attempts to force Chief to come to terms with the fact that he must now resume his cooperation with the state security, which Chief thought he left behind. Despite the Guest’s threats, Chief refuses.

      This showdown of tempers is interrupted by the return of the lady, who decoded the gas-fitter’s true identity from his jacket.

      The three of them must now attempt to figure out how to carry on with their lives.