The Harvest

This short comedy from Belarusian writer Pavel Pryazhko is a beautifully crafted piece of near farce. Following the exploits of four completely incompetent young fruit pickers. And when I say incompetent I mean really, really bad! Their intiail enthusiasm and efficiency quickly starts to wane as they discover that the job in hand is harder than they thought and the equipment, provided by the remote (and unseen) "management" is decrepit.

Whilst not one of Pavel's most political works it is clear that he is pointing the comedy at a post-Russian system that is fundementally broken - no one is qualified, nothing works, nobody cares and everyone just wants to get though their allotted task without being noticed.

Beautifully timed and played, this is a real little gem.

p.s. the Stage Manager has a real job on their hands turning this one around!