The play, If I Had a Gun, I’d Take Them All Down, by Piotr Armionowski, directed by Paul Bargetto, and co-created and performed by Michael Rubenfeld, travelled to New York City and New Jersey in the United States, where it appeared at JACK performance space in Brooklyn, at Nimbus Arts Center as part of the Voices International Festival in Jersey City, and at the Rehearsal for Truth Festival at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City, June 16-22, 2026.

If I Had a Gun, I’d Take Them All Down is a gripping multimedia solo work written by Ukrainian playwright and activist Piotr Armianovski, directed by Paul Bargetto, and created in collaboration with performer Michael Rubenfeld. The production confronts the long history of Russian oppression in Ukraine through a calculated collision of personal testimony, political history, and live performance. The piece unfolds as an intimate, unflinching walk through contemporary wartime Kyiv—examining both the physical architecture of a city under siege and a psychological landscape of memory, resistance, and survival.

The narrative mirrors two distinct timelines: the history of Dmitry Bogrov, the anarchist who assassinated Russian Prime Minister Piotr Stolypin at the Kyiv Opera House in 1911, and the modern narration of Armianovski himself. On stage, Rubenfeld retraces Armianovski’s and Bogrov’s steps through the capital, moving physically across a space transformed by Armianovski’s documentary video projections, which function as a living, cinematic archive.

Enveloped in an immersive soundscape and original composition by Natan Kryszk, the production establishes a multi-sensory environment where acoustic and visual textures evoke collective memory. For New York audiences, the play also represents a bridging of eras for Bargetto, who developed the piece alongside Rubenfeld in Poland after more than a decade away from the city’s independent theater  (where he previously founded East River Commedia and directed the undergroundzero festival). Through its seamless fusion of live staging, documentary cinema, and atmospheric sound and music, the stage becomes a volatile meeting point between two distinct realities: the relative safety of an American theater and a city living under the immediate shadow of war.

Created by Paul Bargetto & Michael Rubenfeld

Text and Video by Piotr Armianovski

Directed by Paul Bargetto

Performed by Michael Rubenfeld

Sound Design/Composition by Natan Kryszk

Dramaturgy by Paul Bargetto & Michael Rubenfeld

Video Mapping and Realization: Popesz Lang

The project was made in Partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York with support from the Polish Ministry of Culture.