If I Had a Gun, I’d Take Them All Down, written by Ukrainian playwright Piotr Armianovski and performed by Canadian actor Michael Rubenfeld, will be staged at Warsaw’s Teal House venue on Friday and Saturday, November 7-8.
The play combines minimal staging with video and sound design to explore how cycles of violence shape individual lives and whole societies, as it moves between past and present-day Kyiv.
The work is inspired by the real story of Dmytro (Dmitry) Bogrov (1887-1911), a Ukrainian-Jewish lawyer and double agent who shot Russian prime minister Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911) at the Kyiv Opera House in 1911.
Bogrov was arrested, tried and executed shortly afterwards.
On stage, the narrative threads that history through contemporary Kyiv, asking what it takes to resist violence and whether change can be built without tearing the old world down first.
In an earlier review, the Dziennik Teatralny outlet called the production “a rare intellectual attempt to jolt the audience into a much rounder and deeper understanding of the current realities of power.”
Director Paul Bargetto describes the piece as “an urgent guided tour through the streets of wartime Kyiv and the tortured, bloody history of Ukraine’s centuries-long desire for freedom and independence from Russia.”
He adds that, “in an age when young men are picking up guns hoping to change the world, the piece also resonates far beyond Ukraine—in the United States and the Middle East, where political assassination is a constant reality.”
Rubenfeld, a Canadian actor, writer and festival producer who lives in Poland, is one of the leading figures in the country's trans-cultural theater and the revival of Jewish culture.
Canadian actor Michael Rubenfeld. Photo courtesy of Teatr Transa-Atlantyk
Bargetto, an American living in Warsaw, is the artistic director of Teatr Trans-Atlantyk, a theater company dedicated to building experiences that reach well beyond the limits of stage-bound theater plays.
The production opened the Konfrontacje Teatralne festival in Lublin, eastern Poland, in October.
The Teal House performances mark the show’s second run at the venue. While the show is in English, Polish and Ukrainian supertitles ensure broad accessibility.
Teal House, an arts center and community built around Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian refugees, hosts the performances as part of its mission to foster "integral" learning and positive communication through art and education.
The center is led by playwright and director Ivan Vyrypaev, a Polish citizen born in the former USSR, whose many internationally staged works examine alienation, aggression and the migrant experience.
Performances are scheduled for Friday, November 7, and Saturday, November 8.
Ticket pre-sales at evently.pl or at the box office.
(rt/gs)