I first saw the film version of this play a few years ago now and loved it. The film and the play are both orginally based on a memoir by Sergey Fetisov called ‘The Story of Roman’. Despite having a copy of the book and even signed by one of the wonderful lead actors in the film, Tom Prior (who also co wrote and co-produced the film) I haven’t actually got round to reading it yet. My bad, it’s on my to read list, I blame the fact that I only have a physical copy of the book and I almost exclusively read on my Kindle nowadays.

Anyway the film is genuinely heartbreaking, I teared up during it, something I rarely do. Both are based on the true story of a forbidden love between a fighter pilot and a private in the 1970s in Soviet-occupied Estonia during the height of the Cold War. The play was a small production with just four actors. Quite short as well with no interval in the performace. The play was definitely a lot less emotional than the film, there was some more funny and warm bits in the play as well, which kept it a lot lighter. Also I knew the story having seen the film, so there was no unexpected twist for me and definitely no tears this time. The play felt a bit rushed though and I think could have done with a bit more of a longer run time to help develop the story further. I enjoyed it, but thought the film was better. 

Afterwards we met the actors and had a bit of a chat with them. Nigel Hastings, the actor who played the general is actually off at the end of this production to star in another play I have seen ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ as the solicitor. A role I can imagine he would be perfect for. I was surprised to find out that one of the main actors, Robert Eades, who played Serge was actually straight in real life, you wouldn’t have guessed it from the play, he was entirely convincing in the part and in the love scenes.