Rupert Goold on Directing Broadway’s Patriots, a Play That Started as History but Crept Into the Present

“One person’s patriotism is another person’s treason.”

Point anywhere on the globe and you’ll find that exact tension stirring up headline-making controversy. It’s also how director Rupert Goold summarizes the dramatic tension at the core of Peter Morgan’s aptly named political thriller Patriots, now running at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

In a theatrical demonstration of the dangerous power vacuum left behind in post-Soviet 1990s Russia, Patriots depicts two possible paths for the country: One follows the vision of billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky (a Tony-nominated performance by Michael Stuhlbarg), promoting a liberated, free-market Russia—a sort of “super-capitalism” as Goold describes it to Broadway.com Managing Editor Beth Stevens on The Broadway Show. “And then you have Putin,” Goold says of the former KGB intelligence officer played by Olivier Award winner Will Keen, “who wants to return Russia to its former glory and assert itself as a superpower.” Thanks to Berezovsky’s ill-fated puppeteering, he still holds the Russian presidency.

The play portrays a specific political climate at a specific moment in time, but Goold’s production—which premiered at London’s Almeida Theatre in 2022—now reaches out to American audiences in a uniquely harrowing way. “As you guys are heading towards another election with a former businessman president possibly returning, I'm sure it's in everyone's consciousness,” Goold says, commenting on Berezovsky’s promise of a businessman savior.” Whatever you think of them morally, people like [Jeff] Bezos and [Elon] Musk—they're to the level of importance that state leaders are. So it's not such a strange idea to imagine a business community or even a business individual running a country.”

As the war in Ukraine continues into its third year, the stakes of Putin’s rise also feel more acute. “Just before we went into rehearsals—maybe even during rehearsals out here, [Alexei] Navalny died,” Goold offers for context, referring to the Russian opposition leader who died in a Russian prison in February. “Probably assassinated.”

“This play that was a history play has become a sort of current affairs play,” he says, looking back on the evolution of a piece he was introduced to before the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think the play ultimately is going to be a call for democracy.” Though on a less urgent note, Goold wants Broadway audiences to know that he considers Patriots as much a platform for artistry as it is a call to action. “I think the heart of it is the acting,” he says. “It's seeing really fantastic performances that are vivid and seeing people knock lumps out of each other on stage.”

Watch the full interview below, including a taste of Goold’s upcoming Broadway musical, Tammy Faye, coming to the Palace Theatre this fall.