Stage revival brings Liverpool women's romance with Soviet sailors back to life

A stage adaptation of the 1985 film Letter to Brezhnev has premiered at Liverpool's Royal Court theatre, retelling the story of two friends from the city's post-industrial fringes whose lives are transformed by a single night with Soviet naval sailors.

The original film starred Margi Clarke, but the story's emotional core always belonged to her friend Elaine, played on screen by Alexandra Pigg. Elaine is a young woman from Kirkby who abandons her dead-end, unemployed existence for a fantasy romance with a foreign sailor, set a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the stage version, Elaine is played by Ellie Clayton, while her friend Teresa is played by Angela Simms. Critics note the pair form a strong on-stage partnership, with Elaine's dreamy romanticism balanced by Teresa's more grounded, occasionally cynical outlook on life.

The script was adapted by the film's original screenwriter, Frank Clarke, who kept much of the film's original structure intact, including its sequence of taxi rides, club nights and ferry crossings. Director Nicole Behan has injected the production with greater theatrical energy and humour without losing the story's emotional depth.

The set, designed by Mark Walters, features a multi-level structure with gangplanks, bedrooms and barbed wire emerging from a facade of wooden cupboards, lit by Ian Scott. Musical direction by Rob Green incorporates hit songs from the 1970s and 80s, blended with live vocal performances from the cast.

Members of the original film's cast were reportedly in the audience for the production's opening night, underscoring the story's lasting connection to Liverpool's cultural history.