Azerbaijani writer Elchin’s play Citizens of Hell, set during the 1937 Stalin terror years, is brought to life as a new musical for the first time. Colin Burnicle and Norma Butikofer take the roles of the Man and the Woman, and Leon Scott is the Visitor. Ensemble includes Ashley Daniels, Melania Maggiore, Tilly-Mae Millbrook, and Luke Thornton.
Directed by Kate Golledge, with musical director Harry Haden-Brown and choreographer Chris Cuming, designed by Elliott Squire, Lighting Design by Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson, commissioned & produced by Sanan Aliyev for Debunk Theatre
MIDNIGHT is a haunting new musical thriller by Timothy Knapman and Laurence Mark Wythe that matches a darkly witty psychological drama with a hauntingly beautiful score.
New Year’s Eve, 1937. Welcome to Baku, Azerbaijan, part of the Communist state of the Soviet Union. As the clock ticks towards midnight, a couple (Colin Burnicle – Elf the Musical, Theatre Royal Plymouth & The Lowry, and Norma Butikofer – Retreat, Little Pieces of Gold, Southwark Playhouse) nervously raise their glasses to an uncertain future. The past 12 months have been the darkest of the Great Terror years, when the paranoid dictator Joseph Stalin unleashed wave upon wave of arrests and executions of ordinary citizens.
And then comes the dreaded knock on the door as a chilling visitor (Leon Scott – Treasure Island, New Vic Theatre; Romeo & Juliet and Othello, Shakespeare’s Globe) invites himself in. Is he from the ruthless secret police? Or is he something a more mysterious and terrifying? Old secrets emerge, time is suspended and the couple are tested to breaking point – and beyond.
Joining Colin, Norma and Leon on stage will be an ensemble of actor-musicians Ashley Daniels, Melania Maggiore, Tilly-Mae Millbrook and Luke Thornton.
Midnight will play at the Union Theatre from Wednesday 5 September to Saturday 29 September, with press night on Tuesday 11 September at 7.30pm.
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