Duck Hunting

THE STORY: Constructed out of flashbacks, the play moves backward and forward in time as it probes into the plight of one Zilov, an engineer who has achieved a certain position in the Soviet bureaucracy, but has lost his will to live. He has come to detest his boring job and the petty superior he must defer to; his marriage is falling apart; he feels betrayed by his friends, he disdains the young student who offers him the passion and sense of wonder he once derived from his wife; and he seems concerned only with his annual hunting trip which, he hopes, will restore a purpose and identity to his life. But events continue to frustrate him: his wife aborts the child who might have saved their relationship; the new apartment they have wrested from the grudging bureaucracy seems more a tomb than a home; and ultimately, suicide appears to be Zilov’s only alternative. But, in the end, emboldened by vodka and defying the persistent bad weather, Zilov does go hunting—for the will to live is stronger than the desire to give up, and hope remains, even in the gray sameness of an existence gone stale. ____ With his outstanding plays and short stories, Alexander Vampilov (1937 - 1972) truly became a cult figure in 1970s Russia. In just ten short years of a literary career, he managed to create his own peculiar realm of the theatrical world. Later, after his untimely death, his plays took the world stage and his name came to be considered among the most notable classic Russian playwrights and theatre figures.