Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer

by Inna Tsyrlin

Aleksandra, a university student arrested by the Soviets for reading an article from the West, is sent to a Gulag camp for seven-years. To help survive her sentence, she joins the camp’s theatre troupe but when she learns that she’ll be performing for the American Vice-President Henry Wallace, she faces a life or death decision. Will she comply with the charade and pretend she is a free woman so she can survive...

Aleksandra, a university student arrested by the Soviets for reading an article from the West, is sent to a Gulag camp for seven-years. To help survive her sentence, she joins the camp’s theatre troupe but when she learns that she’ll be performing for the American Vice-President Henry Wallace, she faces a life or death decision. Will she comply with the charade and pretend she is a free woman so she can survive the Gulag? Aleksandra realizes she has unintentionally signed up for a scheme to deceive Wallace, and the world, that she and other political prisoners across the Soviet Union do not exist. She prepares for two roles: the character on stage – Nina from Chekhov’s The Seagull – and the role of an actor who’s isn’t imprisoned. The theatre troupe becomes Aleksandra’s family, she even falls for the director. While preparing for the performance she realizes that truth requires even greater sacrifice than her arrest. Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer is centered around an actual event where Wallace visited the camp in May of 1944, but instead of seeing a hard labor camp, he saw a façade of a town.

read more
  • Inquire About Rights
  • Recommend
  • Download
  • Save to Reading List

Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer

Recommended by

  • Cary Simowitz: Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer by Inna Tsyrlin
    “

    Inna Tsyrlin's gorgeous play introduced me to a historical event that I admittedly knew very little about prior to encountering this piece. Between stirring monologues, characters that leap off the page, and a constant sense of tension, Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer will stay with you long after the curtain falls.

    Inna Tsyrlin's gorgeous play introduced me to a historical event that I admittedly knew very little about prior to encountering this piece. Between stirring monologues, characters that leap off the page, and a constant sense of tension, Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer will stay with you long after the curtain falls.

    ”
  • Jordan Ramirez Puckett: Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer by Inna Tsyrlin
    “

    With evocative language and a dose of humor, Tsyrlin creates a landscape that instantly pulls you in, giving you characters to both love and despise. And with United States and Russian relations in the news and the US having it’s own detention centers, this play set in the 1940’s feels increasingly relevant. I was fortunate enough to see a university production of this play, and I encourage theatres to consider putting it their season immediately.

    With evocative language and a dose of humor, Tsyrlin creates a landscape that instantly pulls you in, giving you characters to both love and despise. And with United States and Russian relations in the news and the US having it’s own detention centers, this play set in the 1940’s feels increasingly relevant. I was fortunate enough to see a university production of this play, and I encourage theatres to consider putting it their season immediately.

    ”
  • Jean Egdorf: Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer by Inna Tsyrlin
    “

    I had the incredible honor to see a workshop production of this play at Ohio University, and was familiar with the play through workshop readings before. Inna's language is powerful on its own, but in production, this play is elevated to a whole other level. It is gripping, brutal, and heart wrenching, but still at times Inna -- not unlike Chekhov, whose play The Seagull is masterfully evoked throughout -- finds moments of love, beauty, and humor even in the darkest situation.

    I had the incredible honor to see a workshop production of this play at Ohio University, and was familiar with the play through workshop readings before. Inna's language is powerful on its own, but in production, this play is elevated to a whole other level. It is gripping, brutal, and heart wrenching, but still at times Inna -- not unlike Chekhov, whose play The Seagull is masterfully evoked throughout -- finds moments of love, beauty, and humor even in the darkest situation.

    ”
View all 6 recommendations

Development History

Awards

  • Activate: Midwest Festival
    Western Michigan University Theatre
    Semi-Finalist
    2019
  • Pegasus PlayLab Festival
    University of Central Florida
    Semi-Finalist
    2019
  • Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition
    Theater Alliance
    Finalist
    2020