A Man with Connections

Synopsis

In a crumbling apartment in modern-day Russia, a family grapples with the consequences of ambition and corruption in a society held together by favours and bribes.

Andrei, a driven construction-site supervisor, faces the devastating aftermath of assigning his son Alyosha a dangerous task that resulted in the loss of the young man’s hands. His wife Natasha, a socially ambitious librarian, confronts him about this moral failure, igniting an intense hour-long confrontation that lays bare the cracks in their marriage and society at large.

Alexander Gelman’s powerful drama explores themes of moral decay, systemic corruption, and the cost of ambition in Putin’s Russia. Through the disintegration of Andrei and Natasha’s relationship, the play examines the broader collapse of societal values and the human toll of a system driven by quotas and connections. A Man with Connections offers a scathing critique of a nation teetering on the brink, where food shortages, endemic corruption, and unrest in the southern republics are symptoms of a deeper malaise.