Doctor Zhivago
"Playing people" based on the novel of the same name in 3 parts, consisting of prose, poetry and all sorts of things, prompted by the awareness that half of the people have ceased to be themselves and are playing nobody knows what
"Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre" (Moscow)
Text adaptation and staging - Yevgeni Kamenkovich
Duration - 4 hours 50 minutes with 2 intermissions
Premiered on February 21st, 2021
The theatre reinterpreted prose and verses, mixing history with poetry. Each episode of life is set off by the light of eternity. The intersections of destinies appear in a tragic, dramatic, annoying, absurd, prosaic light and are immediately highlighted, illuminated by a poetic miracle - Zhivago's talent, his faith in the Good News of the New Testament, the immortality of all participants in the game of life. The man crushed by history, reduced to the lowest level of the social ladder, has preserved himself in versification - the "presence of art" in the poetic understanding of life.
"A large-scale, almost 5-hour production looks surprisingly easy. There is no wide-ranging "historical epic" here, but there is a dynamic "playing people", "short jumps" from role to role and Fomenko’s lightness ... and also a "transparent" construction, where Pasternak’s views on art, on the Gospel, on the life of a man in history, are easily read." Tatyana Vlasova, "Theatral"
"The stage version of the novel is played out by the artists of the Workshop, as if by notes, easily, effortlessly and truly in the manner of the studio, in accordance with the lessons of the Master." Nina Shalimova," Novaya Gazeta"