Hesperus, Phosphorus!
Created by Annika Pavlin-Jamal | Produced by APJ Productions | Origin: Ottawa, Canada
Arts Court Theatre
14 + fees
45m
Show Details
On the cusp of the Bolshevik revolution, a noble-born governess and a bombmaker argue over semantics—and whether to keep a child conceived out of wedlock.
Showtimes
- Thursday, June 127:30pm
- Saturday, June 1410:30pm
- Sunday, June 155:30pm
- Tuesday, June 178:00pm
- Thursday, June 197:00pm
- Saturday, June 214:00pm
Hesperus, Phosphorus! is a tense, intimate drama about opposites that cannot exist without one another—man and woman, aristocrat and servant, night and day. Set in Petrograd on the brink of revolution, it follows Polina, a fallen noblewoman clinging to the past, and Maksim, a radical servant desperate to escape it. Bound by love, resentment, and need, they tear into each other in a battle of class, power, and longing.
6 responses to “Hesperus, Phosphorus!”
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Holy cow. What a show!!
This was the first show I saw at Fringe this year, and I was not disappointed.
I found myself hating both characters at times and it almost took me out of it, but I I realized that this is the point. This is not a love story.
The writing is witty, poignant, and makes you think—and the actors’ performances brought that out extremely well.
This is a great play with two superb young actors. Really worth seeing, interesting premise and story, I really hope they develop it further.
Highly recommend!!
This intimate portrait of a toxic relationship is raw, layered, and utterly captivating.
Both actors delivered the emotionally charged production with nuance but intensity. The clever writing keeps you thinking long after the show.
An amazing performance by both actors, full of genuine emotion and passion.
The writing for this drama is excellent. It does a really good job of building that emotional tension and subtle word building. The actors’ performances are nuanced and powerful.
It’s a complex play that deserves your full attention.
This play is not what you think. Genuinely.
I came away last night truly moved by the performances from these young actor and actress thinking: great drama. High stakes. Well-written. But I didn’t feel like I “connected.”
I think it’s very easy to slip into this idea that because they speak in a different way and wear vintage clothes and live lives very different from your own that you’re watching a high drama that you cannot relate to.
I slept on it, kept thinking about why someone today would write this play, how it could possibly relate to me. And it hit.
You have to go into this one looking for clues. Look for the greater message, the greater conceit, why this play had to take place in this period of history. And you will not be disappointed. It is a battle between two extremes. It’s a metaphor…
Like others have said, it is a bit short, and it could be developed into a longer play. However, I think it said everything that it needed to say, wrapped up in a devastating bow that made my blood boil.