Petersburg theatre seasons 2020: online

«Hamlet», Russian state institute of performing arts

The play is dramatically based on “Hamletons”, short, sometimes anecdotal stories, invented by the creators of the production and based on the plot of a great tragedy. The genre is defined as “postpunkpuppetshow”. The authors of the play create their own mythological space, in which high tragedy coexists with a rough culture of laughter, allowing them to see familiar characters from a new angle. All the roles are played by men – but this is not even a reference to Shakespeare’s times, but to the tradition of the fairground booth. In this element of the game, masks, dolls, grotesque figures act, which turn the tragedy upside down, revealing the tragic through laughter.

"A man from Podolsk", Priut Komedianta

Typical police station. The detainee is a young man (of about thirty), a resident of Podolsk, situated near Moscow. The reason for the detention is not clear, he is sober, accurate, the documents are in order, the identity is established. But law enforcement officers still arrange an emotional interrogation for him, they threaten to plant drugs or a couple of “dead-end investigations” to improve their statistics. It is a typical situation from crime reports and detective series… but should the native police be so underestimated??

Police questions are completely inconsistent with the protocol and the laws of healthy logic. The interrogation turns into a session of intensive psychotherapy: its purpose is to force the detainee to re-look at his meaningless life. The police themselves try on the role of erudite intellectuals with a great mission to explain how interesting and beautiful the world of an ordinary resident of the Moscow residential areas is.

This performance is for those who are constantly dissatisfied with something — a damp climate, a boring work, an indifferent husband or wife, a dull life. Perhaps they should visit the very same police station where the “Man from Podolsk” got to.

«The Gamblers», Andrei Mironov theatre "Russian Enterprise"

The Andrei Mironov St. Petersburg Theater was founded on November 1, 1988 by Rudolf Furmanov, becoming the first contract theater in Russia. Nikolai Simonov, Arkady Raikin, Andrey Mironov, Alisa Freundlikh, Anatoly Papanov and other legends of the Russian stage – for three decades, thanks to Furmanov, have regularly toured the country with original concert programs.

«The dead Souls», The Lensoviet Academic Theatre

The performance is an investigation. The desire to shake off a layer of dust from a textbook Russian poem, with the help of a great text to answer the questions of today’s life.

"Money to burn", St. Petersburg State Academic Comedy Theatre named after N.P. Akimov

The beautiful Lydia Cheboksarova, who is accustomed to live in a big way, has a lot of fans, but none of them is ready to make an offer to the picky hunter for a rich husband, until the humble provincial Vasilkov appears on the horizon. Friends Cheboksarovyh, wanting to play Lydia, Vasilkova extradite for the gold-mining “millionaire”. Lydia accepts the offer of Vasilkov, but turns out to be cruelly deceived … The plot of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky resembles Without a Dowry, only all the provisions of the drama here are presented in a hilarious manner. A kind of temporary rhyme makes the plot and the problems of Ostrovsky’s satire relevant for today. Russia at the end of the 19th century, when the beautiful era of frivolous beauties and carefree smokers, without an account of throwing money to the wind, replaced severe calculation and economy when new standards of business and family relations were developed, reminiscent of Russia of the 2010s.

The world of Ostrovsky’s heroes, in which vices and virtues are convexly introduced into a complex game and interrelation, continues the satirical line of the repertoire policy of the theater, in which social criticism always represented an important place, represented by such performances as Krechinsky’s Wedding, The Visit of the Lady, The Shadow and Dragon.

«Marriage», National drama theatre of Russia (Alexandrinsky theatre)

This performance is an awardee of the GOLDEN MASK theatre award in the Best Director’s Work and Best Artist’s Work categories.

The stage life of The Marriage novel by of N.V. Gogol began on the stage Alexandrinsky Theatre 170 years ago. In the first performance, the role of Podkolyosin was played by the great Russian actor Alexander Martynov. Ever since then The Marriage has always been a pearl in Alexandrinsky Theatre’s playbill together with The Inspector General.

The staging of Gogol’s plays has always defined the creative frame within the Theatre’s company. Those performances always became flagship ones.

Following The Inspector General, the Artistic Director of Alexandrinsky Theatre, Valery Fokin, decided to stage The Marriage. He has been drawing inspiration fr om Gogol’s works for many years.

The given performance was created on the verge of the writer’s 200th anniversary. In his performance, Valery Fokin describes a bitter conflict between the main character, who is trying to protect his personality, and the reality that is turning into something absurd, even grotesque. This reality forces people to do weird things and participate in awkward situations that seem to be caused by evil spirits. One of such awkward situations is the marriage proposals of six different bachelors to Agafya Tikhonovna Kuperdyagina, a merchant’s daughter. Even in her dreams and fantasies, she fails to find a husband-to-be that would have a full set of good human qualities. The image of a knockabout comedy that is showed now fr om the inside then from the outside created by a well-known Scenery Designer Alexander Borovsky emphasyses the active dynamics of the main character’s transition from his inner world wh ere he feels comfortable and safe, almost like Oblomov lying on his sofa, to the outer world – a hostile and unstable world, wh ere the self-confidence of the main character disappears.