Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...In "Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin," playwright Dianne Nora imagines a training session for one of those doubles, with characters based on the real-life figures of Aleksei Dikiy (a Stanislavski-trained actor who played Stalin in propaganda films) and Dikiy's trainee Felix Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler who was chosen in part for the job because he'd been left for dead on a battlefield and thus had little personal identity to be in potential conflict with Stalin. Dikiy kept silent for years about his Stalin act but eventually fessed up in a 2008 autobiography, presumably feeling enough time had passed that no one would be coming to take him out."

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...In Dianne Nora's Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin, now in its local premiere at A Red Orchid Theatre under Dado's direction, a different genocidal regime is under consideration, and a different fictitious identity is being crafted. But the moral is the same: nobody survives playing along with murderous dictatorships. You'll lose your life or your soul, and possibly both."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...Dianne Nora's Six Men Dressed like Joseph Stalin receiving its Chicago premiere at A Red Orchid Theatre this month is at once an entertaining and an absolutely chilling story."

Buzz Center Stage - Recommended

"...The intensity of the relationship between the two - Koba, an actor's actor, trying to force feed stage excellence into Soso, a street performer - is a constant: Kobo frustrated, Soso struggling. Gradually we understand that Soso has, indeed, become Stalin. But for me, there is not much in the emotional engagement that might be expected. Mostly, I came away bewildered."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Last week, the Russian government erected a new statue of Joseph Stalin in Moscow. Apparently Vladimir Putin is resurrecting the image of the brutal dictator. And this week, a Chicago theater opened a production of Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin. In an intimate staging by A Red Orchid Theatre, this play is even more relevant—even prescient—than it seemed a few months ago."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"..."Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin" is a play concerned with what its title suggests: men bearing resemblance to one another and to a third, absent figure. Koba, with a shock of white hair and a face which has not aged in the manner Stalin's has, no longer looks like the premier. Soso, with a thick black ponytail, sturdy Georgian frame, and an age that hides behind his facial hair, presents a more convincing picture. What Koba is lacking in appearance, however, he makes up for in everything else. Koba knows how to act as though he were Joseph Stalin, and, no matter how convincing looks are, Soso will never play the part unless he learns to do so as well. Soso has been recruited by the NKVD to be Stalin's new body double. He was taken from the front lines by force after the party noticed his resemblance to its leader."