Stage Russia

Lear, the aging king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters.

Directed by Lithuanian choreographer, Anželika Cholina, this multiple award-winning Vakhtangov Theatre production of Anna Karenina tells the story of Tolstoy’s classic novel entirely in contemporary dance. In this way, Cholina succeeds in finding the equivalent of Tolstoy's words in harmony and movement, with every gesture holding meaning. The distinctive music of Alfred Schnittke helps to reveal the inner turmoil of the characters and their depth. Winner of the "Villanueva Award", Best Foreign Performance, International Havana Theatre Festival; Winner "Crystal Turandot" Best Debut Performance, Olga Lerman.

Rimas Tuminas' adaptation of two novels by Grigory Kanovich, is a dreamy, ruminative, comedic road trip, centering around the parlous fortunes of Eastern European Jews at the start of the 20th century. A period piece that carries a modern conscious, Smile Upon Us, is a Becket-like "Waiting for Jehovah" featuring three towering figures from the Russian stage, Viktor Sukhorukov, Aleksei Guskov and Vladimir Simonov.

Based on the play Boris Godunov by Alexander Pushkin, Dmitry Krymov’s Boris is a metaphor about the fate of Russia, its rulers and eternal values, subverting its ideas behind the cover of Pushkin’s text to show a direct line of the current governance of Russia with its imperial past, as well as all the myths on which Russian identity now rests. A flying raven, a poet, a folk choir, saints and sinners, living and dead - all come to life in the twilight of the Provision Warehouses of the Moscow Museum in this new interpretation of a classic work by one of the world’s most renowned stage directors.

Timofey Kulyabin's Golden Mask Award winning ONEGIN removes all expectations of Pushkin's novel in verse and places you in today's world, immersed in the inner thoughts, hopes, despairs, passions and disappointments that drift in, through and around the 4 central figures, Onegin, Tatiana, Olga and Lensky. The work is a hypnotic, quiet love story that perfectly conveys the attitude of the great poet and how very much his masterwork still resonates with our 21st century reality.