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Sarcophagus
Dramatizes the plight of radiation victims from the Chernobyl disaster in Russia
- GenresPlaysHistoricalTheatre
106 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 1987
56 people want to read
About the author
Vladimir Gubaryev
8 books11 followersVladimir Stepanovich Gubarev (b. 1938) - Russian science fiction writer, playwright, journalist. Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1978). Member of the CPSU since 1959.
Graduated from the V.V.Kuibyshev Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1960. In 1962, the first book "Roads of the Universe" was published. Since 1966 he worked in co-authorship with science fiction writers V.A.Agranovsky, D.A. Bilenkin, Y. K. Golovanov, Viktor Komarov and artist Pavel Bunin under the collective pseudonym Pavel Bagryak.
He worked as a journalist, also covering topical issues of science. On April 26, 1986, the first journalist was at the site of the Chernobyl accident - just a few hours after a series of explosions. Impressed by what he saw, he wrote the play "Sarcophagus", which was staged in 56 theaters around the world and was a huge success, especially in Japan. In Great Britain, the play won the Laurence Olivier Theater Award.
Vladimir Gubarev is the author of many intellectual and popular scientific works on the problems of scientific progress, the responsibility of science and scientists to humanity.
Vladimir Gubarev hosts the cycle of programs "Real Fiction" on the Kultura channel of the Russian Central Television.
Graduated from the V.V.Kuibyshev Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1960. In 1962, the first book "Roads of the Universe" was published. Since 1966 he worked in co-authorship with science fiction writers V.A.Agranovsky, D.A. Bilenkin, Y. K. Golovanov, Viktor Komarov and artist Pavel Bunin under the collective pseudonym Pavel Bagryak.
He worked as a journalist, also covering topical issues of science. On April 26, 1986, the first journalist was at the site of the Chernobyl accident - just a few hours after a series of explosions. Impressed by what he saw, he wrote the play "Sarcophagus", which was staged in 56 theaters around the world and was a huge success, especially in Japan. In Great Britain, the play won the Laurence Olivier Theater Award.
Vladimir Gubarev is the author of many intellectual and popular scientific works on the problems of scientific progress, the responsibility of science and scientists to humanity.
Vladimir Gubarev hosts the cycle of programs "Real Fiction" on the Kultura channel of the Russian Central Television.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 20, 2021
-الكل إلي التابوت الحجري.
-نعم لا أفهم ما تقول.
-أقول أن كل ما فوق الأرض... نبات وحيوان وانسان، سوف يذهبون معاً جماعةً إلي التابوت.
هل فكرنا جميعاً ماذا سيكون مصير البشرية والعالم في حالة الأخطاء النووية كانفجار تشرنوبل؟
بعد أن ذهب جوبريف كصحفي لمشاهدة كارثة تشرنوبل ووقائعها ، يخرج إلينا بهذه المسرحية ليبين لنا مدي خطر العصر النووي إذا لم نحسن السيطرة عليه، ومدي تأثير انفجار تشرنوبل علي البيئة والإنسان.
من هو الملام في حدوث هذه الكارثة؟ هل هو رئيس المفاعل النووي أم الحكومة البيروقراطية ؟
-نعم لا أفهم ما تقول.
-أقول أن كل ما فوق الأرض... نبات وحيوان وانسان، سوف يذهبون معاً جماعةً إلي التابوت.
هل فكرنا جميعاً ماذا سيكون مصير البشرية والعالم في حالة الأخطاء النووية كانفجار تشرنوبل؟
بعد أن ذهب جوبريف كصحفي لمشاهدة كارثة تشرنوبل ووقائعها ، يخرج إلينا بهذه المسرحية ليبين لنا مدي خطر العصر النووي إذا لم نحسن السيطرة عليه، ومدي تأثير انفجار تشرنوبل علي البيئة والإنسان.
من هو الملام في حدوث هذه الكارثة؟ هل هو رئيس المفاعل النووي أم الحكومة البيروقراطية ؟
June 17, 2019
“All our cities will have gone … Even the pyramids of Egypt will be just a handful of dust, yet the sarcophagus around this reactor of yours will still be standing. The pyramids of the pharaohs have been there for a mere five thousand years. But to contain the radiation, your nuclear pyramid must remain for at least a hundred thousand years. That is some monument to leave our descendants, isn’t it?”
When I first came to London in March 1987, I saw as many live plays and operas as I could. This must have been among the first I saw – a Royal Shakespeare production at the Mermaid Theatre in October 1987, just over a year after the catastrophe at Chernobyl took place. Over 30 years ago now – but this play is the one that I remember most clearly, it made such an impression on me. I can see the staging, remember the action, the plot, the little snippets of information … The recent amazing Sky TV mini-series “Chernobyl” brought it all back and I had to buy a copy of this play to replace the one I had lost years ago and reread it.
This play is unusual in that it was produced and performed in the Soviet Union in 1986, without censorship (and certainly with official approval) – despite the pointed criticisms of the Soviet system. The author was a senior editor of Pravda, who was one of the first journalists on the scene at Chernobyl. He was so deeply affected by what he saw and heard, that he decided only by dramatizing the information could he provide the emotional impact that the story needed. And believe me – seen on the stage this play has a devastating impact. You emerge into the street afterwards as though you have been physically and mentally thumped. Reading the play has a similar, though slightly less visceral, effect.
The play takes place in a clinic for the victims of radioactive poisoning. Normally, their patients are few and far between – they either die promptly or (less often) are made well enough to leave. The exception is Bessmertny, whose name means Immortal. He has been at the clinic for 487 days, and can never leave. He received a dose of radiation that should have been fatal when he “was dead drunk and fell asleep alongside some experimental apparatus in a nuclear physics laboratory”. Now, he is continually monitored and studied, to try to discover how he has managed to survive.
There are three permanent members of staff – two physicians and a medical director – and initially three medical interns on their first day at the clinic. They are having an animated discussion with Bessmertny (who is playing up to his new audience), when an alarm goes off. Your heart sinks. You know what is going to happen. You just desperately want the ‘normalcy’ to last a little bit longer. Then the new patients start to arrive: the Cyclist; Klava, a peasant woman; the Fireman; the General and his Driver; the Director of the Nuclear Power Station; two power station operatives; and the Physicist. Each is assigned a cubicle. None look particularly ill. The wide range of characters among the patients, shows how the tragedy at Chernobyl – at least in its first few days – affects not only the workers in the power station, but also the wider population around it and the party apparatchiks. Later the ‘fall out’ will be much greater.
An Investigator arrives to gather as much information about exactly what happened from each of the patients – before they die. “Certain people very badly didn’t want it to be an explosion, and they are trying to prove that the reactor failed without blowing up. A fire they say. Simply a fire.” ”But is there such a big difference?” “Too big! An explosion is a crime, but a fire is simply professional negligence. And the degree of blame is different. That’s why the investigator came here so quickly”.
We hear about the shoddy materials used in the construction of the Chernobyl, the corners cut to ensure that the plant was available for use ahead of schedule, the emergency fail-safe system being switched off, the out-dated instruments (“Didn’t you have a duplicate set of instruments?” “Another set of instruments? Where would we get them from? The ones we did have had been repaired over and over again, and anyway they were thirty years old”), the lack of protective clothing for the firemen (“It was considered to be unlikely – or, rather, totally impossible – that it would ever be needed”. The Director had approved everything, because he did not want to make waves. His predecessor had been sacked because “he was a troublemaker. Plus four reprimands for failing to reach his output targets. … ‘raise objections’? I wrote to them (higher authority). I made requests. In other words, I did my job in the way it’s supposed to be done”.
Apart from the self-serving, backside covering of the Director and General, there is the incredible courage of the Control-room Operative and the Physicist: “You saw that, you knew what it was – and you still went in there?”
CONTROL-ROOM OPERATIVE: “Because my transformers had died on me. I had to get them going.”
PHYSICIST: “I couldn’t leave either. I was recording the temperatures. I realized that no one besides me was measuring them. The reactor had started to heat up, and it was important to monitor the dynamics of the process. How could I have left?”
You never see any patient leave the clinic, or die. Their cubicle lights just go off, which is somehow much more emotional.
And finally, Bessmertny decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to “condemn the Director to life” so he can answer for his crimes.
The play is dedicated to “the firemen and power station workers, the physicists and calibrators, the officers, helicopter pilots and miners, adults and children; to all those who, at the cost of their own lives and health, extinguished the nuclear flames of Chernobyl”.
When I first came to London in March 1987, I saw as many live plays and operas as I could. This must have been among the first I saw – a Royal Shakespeare production at the Mermaid Theatre in October 1987, just over a year after the catastrophe at Chernobyl took place. Over 30 years ago now – but this play is the one that I remember most clearly, it made such an impression on me. I can see the staging, remember the action, the plot, the little snippets of information … The recent amazing Sky TV mini-series “Chernobyl” brought it all back and I had to buy a copy of this play to replace the one I had lost years ago and reread it.
This play is unusual in that it was produced and performed in the Soviet Union in 1986, without censorship (and certainly with official approval) – despite the pointed criticisms of the Soviet system. The author was a senior editor of Pravda, who was one of the first journalists on the scene at Chernobyl. He was so deeply affected by what he saw and heard, that he decided only by dramatizing the information could he provide the emotional impact that the story needed. And believe me – seen on the stage this play has a devastating impact. You emerge into the street afterwards as though you have been physically and mentally thumped. Reading the play has a similar, though slightly less visceral, effect.
The play takes place in a clinic for the victims of radioactive poisoning. Normally, their patients are few and far between – they either die promptly or (less often) are made well enough to leave. The exception is Bessmertny, whose name means Immortal. He has been at the clinic for 487 days, and can never leave. He received a dose of radiation that should have been fatal when he “was dead drunk and fell asleep alongside some experimental apparatus in a nuclear physics laboratory”. Now, he is continually monitored and studied, to try to discover how he has managed to survive.
There are three permanent members of staff – two physicians and a medical director – and initially three medical interns on their first day at the clinic. They are having an animated discussion with Bessmertny (who is playing up to his new audience), when an alarm goes off. Your heart sinks. You know what is going to happen. You just desperately want the ‘normalcy’ to last a little bit longer. Then the new patients start to arrive: the Cyclist; Klava, a peasant woman; the Fireman; the General and his Driver; the Director of the Nuclear Power Station; two power station operatives; and the Physicist. Each is assigned a cubicle. None look particularly ill. The wide range of characters among the patients, shows how the tragedy at Chernobyl – at least in its first few days – affects not only the workers in the power station, but also the wider population around it and the party apparatchiks. Later the ‘fall out’ will be much greater.
An Investigator arrives to gather as much information about exactly what happened from each of the patients – before they die. “Certain people very badly didn’t want it to be an explosion, and they are trying to prove that the reactor failed without blowing up. A fire they say. Simply a fire.” ”But is there such a big difference?” “Too big! An explosion is a crime, but a fire is simply professional negligence. And the degree of blame is different. That’s why the investigator came here so quickly”.
We hear about the shoddy materials used in the construction of the Chernobyl, the corners cut to ensure that the plant was available for use ahead of schedule, the emergency fail-safe system being switched off, the out-dated instruments (“Didn’t you have a duplicate set of instruments?” “Another set of instruments? Where would we get them from? The ones we did have had been repaired over and over again, and anyway they were thirty years old”), the lack of protective clothing for the firemen (“It was considered to be unlikely – or, rather, totally impossible – that it would ever be needed”. The Director had approved everything, because he did not want to make waves. His predecessor had been sacked because “he was a troublemaker. Plus four reprimands for failing to reach his output targets. … ‘raise objections’? I wrote to them (higher authority). I made requests. In other words, I did my job in the way it’s supposed to be done”.
Apart from the self-serving, backside covering of the Director and General, there is the incredible courage of the Control-room Operative and the Physicist: “You saw that, you knew what it was – and you still went in there?”
CONTROL-ROOM OPERATIVE: “Because my transformers had died on me. I had to get them going.”
PHYSICIST: “I couldn’t leave either. I was recording the temperatures. I realized that no one besides me was measuring them. The reactor had started to heat up, and it was important to monitor the dynamics of the process. How could I have left?”
You never see any patient leave the clinic, or die. Their cubicle lights just go off, which is somehow much more emotional.
And finally, Bessmertny decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to “condemn the Director to life” so he can answer for his crimes.
The play is dedicated to “the firemen and power station workers, the physicists and calibrators, the officers, helicopter pilots and miners, adults and children; to all those who, at the cost of their own lives and health, extinguished the nuclear flames of Chernobyl”.
October 3, 2011
على الرغم من عدم تحمسى لها فى البدايه... عنوان غامض وحديث عن انفجار تشرنوبل
ظننت انه تقريرى ممل عن حادثة حقيقية...لكن النص أكثر من رائع.. عالمى بحق
بداية من سر اختيار الاسم... حتى النهايه
(إنى أريد القضاء عليه بأن أهبه الحياة)
افضل جملة ينتهى بها النص
ظننت انه تقريرى ممل عن حادثة حقيقية...لكن النص أكثر من رائع.. عالمى بحق
بداية من سر اختيار الاسم... حتى النهايه
(إنى أريد القضاء عليه بأن أهبه الحياة)
افضل جملة ينتهى بها النص
June 22, 2021
Mostly dull, uninspired, with stiff and awkward dialogue. A disappointment.
June 25, 2021
Read for my dissertation on Chernobyl literary mythologies - after the success of the HBO series, this really should be put back on stage!
May 2, 2023
this is really cool, with him being in Kyiv after the accident. I was intrigued, but writing was different when this was published and i didn’t enjoy the style
August 19, 2025
Take your job seriously.
August 31, 2020
A really serious play. It was easy to imagine the setting which in this case is a type of treatment ward. It gives the reader a feeling of being in the moment when everyone felt the severity of Chernobyl and you get to see the deterioration that's caused by radiation poisoning.
Its a good read if you have the time for it. This play did take me a while to get through as there was some very serious scenes and some that didn't really hold my attention. It did give an interesting take on Chernobyl.
Its a good read if you have the time for it. This play did take me a while to get through as there was some very serious scenes and some that didn't really hold my attention. It did give an interesting take on Chernobyl.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews