←Recommendations of Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist

I really regret not seeing this when it was produced. Boyd brilliantly takes big ideas and organizes them in a way that crafters a wonderful character study. I hope this play gets done all over. Lots of questions are asked in this play. Do people ever really change? I want to see audiences all over grapple with this play and the well-written character of Lev.

The rare play that does exactly what it says on the tin. A fantastic non-narrative play in three scenes, featuring almost entirely debate, argument, which paints an entire life. Boyd shows us that sometimes the best way to capture the entirety of a person isn't to meet them at every moment, or even the most important moments of their lives, but when they are challenged most on their beliefs. Lev is a different character in each 20 year gap we see him in. Sort of. As are we. Fantastic genuine political arguments too. Read up.

I feel like when you hear that a play is "polemical" or is about "dialectic" it puts a sour taste in the mouths of most audience members but this play is a tart, biting treat that turns into a delectable three-course meal of compassionate and combative political discourse. The ideas are packaged in a way that is both challenging to the expert and accessible to the layperson thanks to how well they are wound into the personalities of the main character and those that warble around him. This play is a goddamn blast against the wall with a great twist.

Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist is a sharply written and brilliantly paced political dramedy that acts as a miraculously didactic piece of theater that does less to try and convince you to join the good cause and more to warn of what comes when failed ideals sour into bitter fruit.

It's surprising, sad, and a bit scary how negligible the differences are between defending the choice of a lesser evil in the face of a would-be Hitler versus the actual one.

THREE SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A TROTSKYIST is deeply truthful while also being completely absorbing and entertaining. With its richly drawn characters and unforeseen reversals. Boyd effortlessly traces the path of, not just an individual, but a cultural phenomenon in which the oppressed became the oppressor, in which privilege leads to blindness, in which race intersects with access - or limits thereof - and so much more!! As someone aching to write about the socioeconomic evils at the heart of our collective dysfunction, without becoming didactic, this play is a master class!

Sharp, vivid, and wildly intelligent, "Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist" effortlessly educates at the same time as it entertains. The dialogue and characters leap off the page, bringing the heady ideas at its core to life in a way that I find extremely rare in political plays. This play illuminated the evolution of perspectives on communism and socialism in America in a way I honestly never understood before. Theatrical and timely, this play is a feast for actors and audience alike!

While I know that Andy Boyd doesn't even know me, I felt as if he wrote this play just for me. Of course it will touch and move anyone interested in 20th Century politics, Jewish intellectuals, and those of us who dream of the end of capitalism. The podcast version is very well done, but I look forward to a production with all the visuals restored in all their messiness. Arise, arise, read or listen to this play! "We have nothing to lose but our chains...

A fascinating reveal of what made Lev Trachtenberg the man over the course of his life, the impact he made and the impact of politics. Well done.