If I Had a Gun, I’d Take Them All Down is a multidisciplinary monodrama that confronts the long history of Russian oppression in Ukraine through a powerful collision of personal testimony and political history. At the center of the performance is Ukrainian playwright and activist Piotr Armianovski, who grapples with a deeply personal question: in the face of violence, war, and authoritarian power, can one individual truly make a difference?

The performance unfolds through the story of Dmitry Bogrov, the anarchist who assassinated Russian Prime Minister Piotr Stolypin in the Kyiv Opera House in 1911. As Bogrov moves through the streets of early twentieth-century Kyiv toward this fateful act, Armianovski mirrors his journey with his own experiences of protest, resistance, and survival in modern Ukraine.

Past and present collide as the piece moves fluidly between historical reenactment and contemporary reality. The assassination of Stolypin echoes through a century of political violence: the struggle for Ukrainian independence, the Maidan revolution, the annexation of Crimea, political assassinations on Kyiv’s streets, and the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion.

Created by Paul Bargetto & Michael Rubenfeld
Text and Video by Piotr Armianovski
Directed by Paul Bargetto
Performed by Michael Rubenfeld
Dramaturgy by Paul Bargetto & Michael Rubenfeld

Voice International Theatre and Arts Festival supported in-part by funding through the NJEDA’s A.R.T. – Phase IIGrant Program and Visit NJ
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