THE SUICIDE is a deliriously funny and laugh-out-loud comedy about an unemployed man, Semyon, who contemplates suicide. When his thoughts become known, a variety of zany characters try to persuade him to die to promote their cause – including artists, intellectuals, lovers and butchers. All plead their case and hope to gain publicity if Semyon dies in their name.

Nikolai Erdman’s 1924 Russian comedy is a testament to the survival instinct of the individual in the face of crushing external and social forces. When you consider the times in which it was written, the audacity is breath-taking. It celebrates the will to love, it argues for the right to work, and is filled with wonderful, wild and madcap humour.