Goya's Last Portrait/A Question of Geography

Two essential plays from Berger and Bielski on art, politics and liberation

Goya’s Last Portrait and The Question of Geography are the result of collaboration between John Berger and the actress and writer Nella Bielski. Here, collated for the first time as part of the Essential John Berger Series.

Goya’s Last Portrait, is a study of the artist looking back on his work and drawing the outline of the relationship between art and life. Having painted the darkest images of the soul, the horrors of war, as well as the vibrant colours of aristocratic life, Goya’s questions whether he has reflected life or changed it.

The Question of Geography, premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company, i s 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 delves into themes of exile, displacement, the lasting effects of political repression, and the struggle to rebuild lives after imprisonment.