Date: October 31 2011
Time: 19.30
Venue: The Robinson Theatre, Hills Road College, Cambridge

For tickets contact the box office on: 01223 278049

The new play by Fraser Grace is set to tour nationally this autumn, showing for one evening at The Robinson Theatre, Cambridge. 'Kalashnikov, in the woods by the lake', for which Fraser undertook a research trip to the USSR this summer, is a provocative drama about Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the world-famous AK47 assault rifle and a decorated Soviet hero.

Fraser said: "The AK47 is one of the most instantly recognised - and most numerous - weapons in the world and is the weapon of choice for freedom fighters, criminals and terrorists the world over.

"But it was originally conceived by Kalashnikov to help defend the Motherland against Nazi occupation. I was curious to know the secrets of the gun's phenomenal success - if we can use that word - but also to ask awkward questions about moral responsibility."

Fraser, who teaches on the BA (Hons) Writing and Drama and MA Creative Writing, is the author of a number of successful plays for theatre including Perpetua, Gifts of War, Who Killed Mr Drum? (Co-written with Sylvester Stein), Frobisher's Gold and, most notably, Breakfast with Mugabe, originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and winner of the John Whiting Award for Best New Play of 2006.

Reviews for Breakfast with Mugabe:

'...the piece cracks and pops with wit, but the humour sugar-coats a deadly seriousness...The shock of the evening lies in Grace's even-handedness'. Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph.

'...contains a dazzling number of vectors of political and psychological power-play'. Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times.

'...a brilliantly imagined journey...' Mark Shenton, The Stage.

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