Walpurgis Night, or the Steps of the Commander

The first major English translation of a masterful seriocomic theatrical work by one of the most prominent writers of the Soviet epoch Walpurgis Night, by acclaimed Russian writer Venedikt Erofeev, is considered a classic in the playwrights homeland. Erofeevs dark and funny five-act satire of Soviet repression has been called the comic high-water mark of the Brezhnev era. Walpurgis Night dramatizes the outrageous trials of Lev Isakovich Gurevich, an alcoholic half-Jewish dissident poet confined by the state to a hospital for the insane. In Ward 3a microcosm of repressive Soviet societyGurevich deploys his brilliant wit and ingenuity to bedevil his jailers, defend his fellow inmates, protest his incarceration, and generally create mayhem, which ultimately leads to a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.