A fantastic story from the provincial life in the Provincial Theater

MOSCOW. In the Provincial Theater, led by Sergei Bezrukov, the second premiere of the first theatrical season took place. Director Sergei Puskepalis presented to the audience his new work - “The First, Second Coming”, which was based on the novel by Alexei Slapovsky, known by the same name.

A strange story unfolds before the audience, telling about how in a small provincial town where nothing happens, one of the residents decides that the ordinary guy who lives next door to him is the new Christ. Peter Salabonov, who became the embodiment of the Messiah in the eyes of the inhabitants of the city, really has some special gift - he is popular as a healer.

The hero of the play himself is wary of his abilities, trying to live an ordinary life, but this is already becoming impossible. How to live on, what to think about yourself, if your neighbor seriously states that you are the embodiment of God. The former paratrooper is in search of an answer to the eternal question that tormented the characters of many famous writers - who am I?

However, the hero of the play poses this question in a grotesque form. The director defined the genre of staging a subtitle on the play’s poster - “Scenes from Provincial Life”. The director embodied the strange plot of the play on the stage in such a way that the usual history of human relations appears before the audience.

Sergei Puskepalis told media that interest in Slapovsky’s novel arose 16 years ago, after his first reading. At first it was the thought of its adaptation, and then a proposal came up from Sergei Bezrukov and the writer himself to create the play. So a peculiar parable from the life of our contemporaries appeared on the stage of the Provincial Theater.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru