Two Onegins and two Lensky and one Tatyana in the new production of Rimas Tuminas

MOSCOW. Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s birthday was celebrated in his hometown of Vladikavkaz by the unveiling of a monument to the great director, made by sculptor Stanislav Tavasiev, and in the theater, which received the name of its founder, this date will be celebrated by the premiere of the performance.

On the evening of February 13, the theater audience will see the premiere of the anticipated production of Rimas Tuminas’s Eugene Onegin at the Vakhtangov Theater. The audience is ready for surprises that those who have already been able to attend the general run of the performance on the 11th have already managed to tell.

Rimas Tuminas approached the staging of the well-known to many literally classical work in an unusual way, so already after the first rehearsals among theater-goers, rumors began to circulate about an experiment involving actors from the famous theater.

Indeed, the theater public did not see such a Pushkin poem - two Evgeni Onegin and two Lensky are on the stage at once. One of the Onegins is played by Sergey Makovetsky. His Onegin has already lived a long life, and now he is looking at himself, young, from the outside, knowing about everything that will be in front of the young Onegin, the role of which is played by Viktor Dobronravov.

Tatyana is alone in the play, Olga Lerman and Vilma Kutavichute will take on their roles in turn in different performances. The role of the nanny and several other heroines will be played by Lyudmila Maksakova. Tuminas came up with a character that Pushkin does not have - the text belonging to the author will be voiced by “retired hussar”, Vladimir Vdovichenkov. Constantly with a glass in his hand, he comments on every scene of the play.

The famous beginning of the Pushkin novel in the play will not sound, the action will begin in the dance class, and the back of the stage will be a huge mirror, as if releasing heroes from the looking glass on the stage.

Ludmila Trautmane