The Crown’s Peter Morgan to premiere play about Russian oligarchs

Patriots will open at the Almeida in London and star Tom Hollander as Boris Berezovsky, with Vladimir Putin and Roman Abramovich among the characters

Peter Morgan, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and creator of Netflix's The Crown, is to explore the world of Russian oligarchs in a new play at the Almeida theatre in London.

Patriots will star Tom Hollander as the businessman Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead, apparently hanged, at his Berkshire home in 2013. The play, set in Russia and the UK, features Vladimir Putin, whom the kingmaker" Berezovsky helped into the Kremlin before the pair became foes. Berezovsky, who once owned Russia's most powerful television station, fled to Britain, where he remained a prominent critic of Putin.