Name: Foreign Gifts - a Play about Communism versus Capitalism
SKU: 24524
Price: 5.50 USD
Availability: InStock

Description

FOREIGN GIFTS – DRAMA ABOUT COMMUNISM VERSUS CAPITALISM

Those with authority deny us the possibilities. What possibilities? That of knowing more. Two speakers – Russian girls, speak for their way of life, the only way of life they know. Socialism or capitalism? Which is the right way? Each girl knows or thinks she knows the answer. A simple conversation over the dinner table turns into ‘cold war’ in their very living room in this play about communism versus capitalism.

Socialism (or communism) is Sonia and capitalism is Raya. Sonia is for everyone and Raya is for herself. Sonia is containment and Raya is release. The two opposing sides are clear as the line drawn in the very room they are in – between The Soviet Union and America – as Raya speaks up for her identity and Sonia tries to convince her she has none. No identity, no self and therefore no cause for the self. Sonia tells Raya all she has been taught at school – the credibility of her facts checked by her teachers. Raya takes it in enough to know that ‘truth’ in the times of denying who we are as individuals, is as credible as fiction.

A powerful play that has the potential to win awards.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts, VA, USA – 2018

PRODUCTION PHOTOS FROM MFA theater department stidents at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in November 2018

MFA theater department students at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in November 2018

Other plays by Nina Kossman (Mirror – teen fantasy one act)

Author: Nina Kossman

Genre: One act drama play about communism versus capitalism

Type: One act play

Main Cast: 2 – F

Ages of the actors: Teens

Suitable for: Teens to both watch and perform.

Length: Twenty five to thirty minutes

Set: SETTING: An apartment in Moscow. A minimal set. A dinner table and two chairs. On the table are two plates: one plate is clean, the remains of a recent meal are on the other. In the beginning of the play, both Sonia and Raya are in the same (“Soviet”) part of the room. Raya is sitting at the table in front of the plate with an unfinished meal. Sonia is standing next to her.

Level of difficulty: 8/10 – a simple conversation and a game between two girls is layered on top of political nuances.