A Woman Walks Into A Bank

Moscow, August 2018. The World Cup has just ended, and it has been a roaring success. Free metro travel. Parties in the square. The police, the ones with guns, they were smiling! People finally saw that yeah, it’s okay over here and no, it doesn’t snow in the summer, it’s actually very warm. And wait, did we mention it was an incident-free event?

But when an old woman walks into a bank, she is conned into taking out a high-interest loan, which she immediately forgets all about. A catastrophic series of events are set in motion…with only her cat Sally to bear witness.

Winner of the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, A Woman Walks Into A Bank is a powerful portrayal of a country in crisis. Inspired by childhood fairytales, Roxy Cook’s vibrant debut play uses biting humour to interrogate the social apathy tearing Russia apart. How did we get here? How can we get out?