Goya’s Last Portrait/A Question of Geography

Goya’s Last Portrait presents the artist struggling to comprehend the relationship between his life and his work. Having painted humanity at its most violent and depraved amid the horrors of war, and also depicted the vibrancy of aristocratic life, Goya faces an overwhelming question: Has he changed the world or merely caught its reflection?

The Question of Geography is set in Magadan, a town in the Soviet far east, where former political prisoners, known as ‘Zeks’, are forced to live after serving their sentences. The play examines exile, political repression, and the psychological legacy of incarceration.

These two plays, the result of a collaboration between John Berger and the actress and writer Nella Bielski, are here brought together for the first time as part of the Essential John Berger Series.