French playwright EH Schmitt arrives in St. Petersburg to the festival of his plays

ST. PETERSBURG. “Discovery of the Year” was the name of the theater festival in the press dedicated to the work of the French playwright Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, which has been taking place on November 10 at the Youth Theater on Fontanka. The author of popular plays in almost all countries of the world also came to the festival.

In St. Petersburg, the plays of the French playwright in the early 2000s were staged almost simultaneously in three theaters. Then the audience saw his plays Small Marital Crimes, Frederick and The Visitor. The idea of creating the festival belongs to the Youth Theater on Fontanka, where director Sergei Morozov recently worked on the play “Four Tangos of Love”, staged based on a play by EE. Schmitt.

While working on the play, Morozov was so carried away by the playwright’s work that he decided to invite the author to St. Petersburg. At the opening of the festival, Schmitt admitted that he was very pleased with the invitation to come to the festival on his own behalf. No sanctions can prevent cultural cooperation, since the vicissitudes of politics are momentary events, and culture is an eternal concept.

Three years have passed from the idea of holding the festival to its opening. Although it was not easy for the playwright to set aside a week to travel to St. Petersburg, he said that the invitation was a wonderful gift for him. According to the playwright, he is happy to feel like a Russian writer for a whole week.

At the festival, viewers will be able to get acquainted with Schmitt not only as a playwright, but also as a film director, and even an actor. Everyone who got to the play “The Secret of Carmen”, shown on November 11th in the Academic Chapel, saw on the stage a French playwright. The artists of the theater on the Fontanka prepared a sketch of Schmitt’s new play “If You Start Again”.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru