Lenin (Only One) 

by Polychronis Koutsakis

Cast: Two males

Plot Summary:  Two men, both in their late thirties, are sharing a humble room in present-day Russia. One of them is a former champion athlete, now unemployed, while the other, an intellectual, has never worked in his life. In order to have something to eat, the former athlete looks around for grocery stores with fat owners so that he can steal tomatoes, potatoes, bread, cheese and whatever else he can lay his hands on without getting caught. These two dissimilar but close friends, who are always grumbling to each other, try every day to come up with the idea that will enable them to "hit the jackpot", and save them from the misery in which they live.

At last the intellectual comes up with an idea which they put into practice. The two heroes steal the embalmed body of Lenin, bring it by night to their room in a packing-case and inform the Russian government and the whole planet that they are demanding a ransom of a million dollars for its return. However, nobody cares enough to offer to pay for Lenin. Days pass, the two men get into the habit of talking to Lenin as if he can hear them, until they discover that not everyone is utterly indifferent to him. Because at last they find one person, Only One (the title of the play) who is willing to pay to have Lenin back.