A satire on the distrust of authority and the threat of the independent voice to the socialist system, Vladimir Mayakovsky's 1929 original was written at a time of growing disillusion with the Soviet Union. 'The Bedbug', adapted by Snoo Wilson, was commissioned by the National Theatre as one of six new plays, adaptations, or translations, for the 1995 BT National Connections, a collection of contemporary plays for young people.