Jess Zlotnick

Assistant Director and Mask Designer - Performed at The New Theatre

August 15th - September 16th 2023

A Very Expensive Poison

By Lucy Prebble
Directed by Margaret Thanos

“To turn the truth into justice – which I’m sorry to say are not the same thing – one has to tell the story.”

London, 2006. A brazen political assassination is carried out in broad daylight. Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, drinks green tea laced with radioactive poison.

Subsequent investigations uncover a conspiracy generated from the very heart of the Russian government, and a murder probably approved by President Vladimir Putin.

In this award-winning play, based on the facts as laid out by the investigative journalist Luke Harding in his book of the same name, acclaimed writer Lucy Prebble (Succession, Enron) tells a complex story of espionage and mystery.

On a whirlwind journey from Moscow to Mayfair, it follows Litvinenko as he investigates his own death, and his wife Marina’s quest for justice, in the face of Russian corruption and British vacillation.

With a dazzling mix of vaudeville, thriller, romance and tragedy, this astonishing and imaginative drama deep dives into the terrifying world of the new Cold War.

Cast

Matt Abotomey, Richard Cox, Ben Dewstow, Eliva, Angus Evans, Hannah Forsyth, Tom Hanaee, Amelie James-Power, Madeline Kunstler, Tasha O’Brien, Ewan Peddley, Mason Phoumirath, Diego Retamales, Chloe Schwank, Luke Visentin, Cath Young

Creatives

Director Margaret Thanos
Assistant Director & Mask Designer Jess Zlotnick
Movement Director Diana Alvarado
Set & Costume Designer Aloma Barnes
Composer & Sound Designer Sam Cheng
Lighting Designer Jas Borsovszky
Accent Coach Felicity Jurd
Singing Coach Georgia Condon
Stage Manager & Props Coordinator Lulu Barkell
ASM Astra Milne
Sound and Lighting Assistant Paris
Costume Assistant Sabry Beshir Mohamed
LX/SX Operators Noah Cohen-Stoddart, Georgina Moore