Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theater: A Russian on a Rendezvous

After Ivan Turgenev’s novella “Spring Freshets”, running time: 2 h 40 m, prime October 21, 2011
Last performed July 15, 2021

Author — Ivan Turgenev
Idea and Musical Setting — Dmitry Zakharov, Serafima Ogaryova, Yekaterina Smirnova, Artyom Tsukanov
Сonsultant Director — Yury Butorin
Stage Designer — Vladimir Maximov
Lighting Designer — Vladislav Frolov
Costume Designers — Anna Belan, Valeria Kurochkina
Make-up — Anna Meleshko, Larisa Gerasimchuk, Svetlana Guguchkina, Marina Mikhalochkina, Viktoria Starikova
Stage Manager — Yelena Lukianchikova
Music Coach — Marina Raku
Speech Coach — Vera Kamyshnikova
Italian languge Coach — Monica Santoro
Editor — Maria Kozyar

The play based on Ivan Turgenev’s novella Spring Freshets was undertaken by the second generation of theater interns on suggestion from Pyotr Fomenko. Gradually, from the fragments that were shown during traditional “Evenings of trial and error,” a whole play had emerged. Production was directed by Evgeny Kamenkovich.

A Russian man is weak and inert, and even when he’s on a rendezvous with life itself, when his own fate is being decided, he’s unable to make a decision, unable to make his own step. He’s only going with a flow, gazing around, without looking back, but also not wanting to look too far ahead. This was how critic Nikolai Chernyshevsky articulated the dreadful diagnosis given to the Russian society by Turgenev in his famous article, which gave the name to the stage play.

This stage production is practically infused with the vital energy, which is sorely lacking from the academic theaters. Watching A Russian on a Rendezvous, you can easily imagine how much fun the actors had rehearsing it, how many jokes were made, how certain tricks were invented. It seems that the actors are swelling with pranks, and that the production itself constantly wants to fly away like a helium baloon.: Roman Dolzhansky, Kommersant