The Roundtable Ensemble

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD (freely adapted by Robert Ross Parker from a literal translation of Erdman's Samoubiitsa by Marina Raydun) tells the story of Semyon Semyonovich, an unemployed, impoverished young man who discovers the joy of life only when he decides to kill himself. Then word gets out and he finds himself inundated with sympathetic visitors - begging him to die on their behalf!

Famous for being the greatest Russian play that never was, Erdman's comic masterpiece is one of the jewels of the Russian stage.

When it was written in 1928, Russia's three greatest theatre companies, the Vaktangov Theatre, Stanislavski's Moscow Arts Theatre, and the Meyerhold Theatre all competed for the rights to produce this satirical take on the relationship between the individual and society's ideals. But with the beginning of Stalin's first Five Year Plan, a ruthless attack on so-called dissident elements was enforced. Stalin banned the play before its first public performance and playwright Nikolai Erdman was arrested and exiled to Siberia. Subsequent attempts to present the work in the USSR all failed. Moscow finally allowed a showing 50 years later but by then Erdman had died, having never written another play.

Played in repertory with Babel Tower.

Roundtable's 2010 Repertory Season was made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

A New York Times Critics' Pick

NYTheatre.com Pick of the Week

A rarely produced gem ... director Robert Ross Parker's target is pure, silly farce. And he hits it, dead-on.
          - Jason Zinoman, The New York Times
             Read the review in its entirely here

A rambunctious and zingy adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's biting satire with actors like inveterate scene-stealer Paco Tolson and comedy quarterback William Jackson Harper.
          - Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
            Read the review in its entirely here

The show's pace is fast and furious and the fourth-wall-breaking moments are great fun. Goodbye Cruel World is thought-provoking theatre that's ... wildly entertaining.
          - Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
            Read the review in its entirely here

A frantic, fun piece that races along at a harrowing pace and dares the audience to keep up with it. Goodbye Cruel World is like a Marx Brothers comedy, but one that includes Karl Marx as the fifth brother.
          - Scott Mitchell, musicOMH
            Read the review in its entirely here

Thanks to some high-octane performances and Robert Ross Parker's sprightly adaptation, this fable of an Everyman in trouble is both informative and riotously entertaining. Under Parker's taut direction, the committed, versatile cast handles everything from slapstick beats to seething diatribes with deft precision. They are aided by Nick Francone's comically dreary set and Theresa Squire and Antonia Ford-Roberts's vaudeville-Bolshevik costumes. As enjoyable as the character's antics are, however, there is a poignant side to their self-deluded speeches. From flat bromides about the coming Revolution, to a wistful rendition of the Communist anthem "The Internationale," Goodbye is filled with touching depictions of what happens to the human spirit when a utopian dream becomes a totalitarian nightmare.
          - Ethan Kanfer, Show Business Weekly
            Read the review in its entirely here