At the center of this biting satire on the shameless exploitation of pain and sorrow, of fame, success, and failure—set in the chaotic new Russia of the 1990s—is Semyon Podsekayev, our unemployed and desperate hero. He has missed the heyday of the new country, and when his last hopeless venture falls apart, he decides it's time to end it all. But his planned suicide is immediately hijacked by a horde of leeches and crooks bent on profit.

Semyon becomes instantly famous, but during the hilariously vulgar television variety show where his suicide is broadcast live, surrounded by all these monsters, he realizes that his old life might have been worth living after all. But is it too late?

• direction Sam Brown conductor Adrian Kelly cast Paul Curievici, Jenny Stafford, Richard Burkhard, James Hall, Jane Burnell, Myrna Tennant, Mark Omvlee, Rommie Rochell, Aina Miyagi Magnell et al. orchestra Phion choir Consensus Vocalis
• language sung in English, with Dutch and English surtitles
• disclaimer This production features the subject of suicide