Duration – 3 h. with one intermission. Age restriction 16+
Inhabitants of a small town live their own lives taking their time over tea with baranki whereas cosmic scale passions are raging under the surface of this quiet provincial pool. Enterprising landowner Murzavetskaya is aspired to pocket the inheritance of a rich young widow Evlampia Kupavina. Murzavetskaya almost reaches her aim having played matchmaker between her nephew and the widow. Unexpectedly, a new participant joins the race. It is a “great schemer” landowner Vasily Berkutov.
So, who will win the prize?
“There is a tradition of staging Ostrovsky’s plays simply and in strict accordance with the text. But we have set a goal of discovering additional meanings that are hidden between the lines. We cast aside a historical cover having left only the outline of the play and, to our surprise, it turned out to be decidedly contemporary. The author wrote his story in a way that every viewer could find themselves out among the characters and laugh or maybe get scared. That is why Ostrovsky is a genius dramatist,” Andrzej Buben, director.
Alexander Ostrovsky
Comedy in five acts
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director — Andrzej Buben
Set Designer and Costume Designer — Svetlana Tuzhikova
Composer — Gleb Kolyadin
Lighting Designer — Konstantin Udovichenko
Executive Producer — Margarita Pyantina
CAST
Meropia Davydovna Murzavetskaya, a 65-year-old maid and landowner of a large but disordered estate, quite influential over governorate affairs — Natalia Parashkina
Apollon Viktorovich Murzavetsky, a young man of 24, retired Praporshchik, Murzavetskaya’s nephew — Arseniy Vorobyov
Glafira Alekseevna, a young poor relative of Murzavetskaya — Anastasia Podosinnikova
Evlampia Nikolaevna Kupavina, a rich young widow — Mariya Lysyuk
Anfusa Tikhonovna, her aunt — Alla Emintseva
Vukol Naumovich Chugunov, a sixtyish former member of a district court jury — Yuri Elagin
Mikhail Borisovich Lynyaev, a wealthy obese gentleman in his late 40s, Honorary Justice of the Peace — Sergei Andreychuk
Vasily Ivanovich Berkutov, a landowner and Kupavina’s neighbour, a middle-aged imposing man, already balding but very lively and agile — Valery Solovyov, Honoured Artist of Russia
Pavlin Savelich, a butler — Alexander Peredkov
Klavdy Goretsky, Chugunov’s nephew, a handsome curly-haired young man with ruddy face — Stanislav Shapkin
The premiere took place on December 25, 2020