Plays

The Roman Bath

If you are planning to go on holiday this summer, think again! For years Ivan Antonov has only been allowed to take his holidays in January, but he finally gets lucky – his boss falls ill and he can go to the seaside in August! He leaves his house key to builders who are going to repair the floorboards. Refreshed and suntanned, he comes back from holiday to find a nasty surprise. After lifting the floorboards, the builders have made a sensational discovery – a perfectly well-preserved marble Roman bath with a beautiful mosaic depicting bathing matrons. As a unique cultural artefact of global significance, the bath is immediately placed under state protection. Antonov’s native home is declared an archaeological site. An ambitious associate professor takes charge of the excavations which gradually spread from the lounge, where the bath was discovered, to the kitchen and toilet. The associate professor – having been the first academic who saw the bath – is ready to sleep on the site and even abandon his fiancée to prevent others from getting their hands onto the bath. An “art historian”, actually an artworks smuggler, starts pursuing Antonov with a proposal to sell the Roman bath to Western art collectors and promises of la dolce vita on the shores of Lake Como. An unscrupulous lawyer pressures Antonov to sell the house by formally adopting a rich client as a child, even though the latter is 60 years old. The situation grows even more absurd when a lifeguard is appointed to the bath, because this is a legal requirement for every swimming pool. And laws must be observed! Yet nobody can rescue Antonov’s own life.

Selected Productions

The Roman Bath
The Roman Bath

Selected Translations

The Roman Bath
Satirical Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria. Directed by Neycho Popov.
The Roman Bath
Ankara Devlet Tiyatrosu, Ankara, Turkey. Directed by Edip Tümerkan.
The Roman Bath
Gologan Productions, Arcola Theatre, London, United Kingdom. Directed by Russell Bolam.
The Roman Bath
The Roman Bath