Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theater: 4 days in frame 25

Poetic mystery in 2 episodes, running time: 2 h 50 m, prime September 18, 2025
Ticket price range 1300—10000 rub.

Author — Olya Mukhina
Director — Yevgeny Kamenkovich
Designer — Evgeniya Shutina, Mariya Borovskaya, Vladislav Frolov
Composer —
Choreographer — Vitaliy Dovgaluk
Ass. director — Maria Kozyar, Ivan Guerasimov

Upcoming Performances

November, 2, 19:00

December, 14, 19:00

Olya Mukhina’s new play is once again about Love. It is also about the absurdity of life, about God, about faith and the lack thereof, and about the possibility of preserving goodness in a world gone mad…

It is no coincidence that the action takes place in an asylum—the eternal refuge of lovers and geniuses.

Here, people discuss faith but cannot bring themselves to believe. They speak of love but do not know how to love. The characters seem to have stepped into the notorious «25th frame»—that subliminal image said to influence the subconscious. It is a great myth: something that does not exist, yet something everyone believes in.

Absurdity and reality are woven into the plot in a kind of logical disorder; words lose their meaning and acquire new ones; the measured lives of the elite psychiatric clinic’s residents uncoil like a tightly wound spring; and Love must once again triumph over Death.

You can find audience reactions to the play on our forum under the hashtag #4дняв25кадре.

The Pyotr Fomenko Workshop opens its new season with a play by Olya Mukhina about the destructive and redemptive power of love — and about how desperately we need it in a world that seems to have finally gone mad. […] The playwright ultimately poses eternal questions: who are we in this movie — actors or spectators? And where does it actually take place — in reality or in the labyrinths of imagination? Onstage, absurdity and reality intertwine in an intricate pattern, words acquire new and unexpected meanings, and the measured life of the clinic winds tighter and tighter like a spring, preparing for an inevitable collision in which, by the laws of Mukhina’s universe, love must once again triumph decisively over death.: Tatyana Tafintseva, The Art Newspaper Russia

The Pyotr Fomenko Workshop’s 4 Days in the 25th Frame, directed by Evgeny Kamenkovich from a play by Olya Mukhina, is exuberant, cheerfully crazy and illogical — and leaves an extraordinarily pleasant aftertaste. It never provokes the irritation of “what on earth was the author trying to say?” or “why did they save someone first, drown them next, and then try to take them away?” On the contrary, afterwards you find yourself meditatively turning over the different pieces of the puzzle, searching for the right connections and accepting — among other things — temporal and spatial gaps simply as part of its reality.: Olga Vladimirskaya, Musecube.org

First of all, it is beautiful. To borrow the language of cinema, the picture is exquisite, vivid, almost 3D and multimedia. Your eyes rejoice and dart from one thing to another, without a single chance to grow bored. Every scene is composed of a complex array of elements, while the scenes themselves change rapidly and rhythmically, together with the sets, costumes and special effects. What gardens bloom on this stage, what thunderstorms erupt, what rains pour down! You constantly want to nudge your neighbor and say, like at the movies: what a shot! Frame it and hang it on the wall.: Polina Sanaeva, Snob

The new play, 4 Days in the 25th Frame, once again speaks about what matters most — love. About its destructive and redemptive power, about how necessary it is in a world that seems to have finally gone mad. It is no coincidence that the action takes place in an elite psychiatric clinic — the classic refuge of geniuses, poets and lovers. Here the characters discuss faith while unable to believe, and speak of love while unable to love. They seem to have entered that mythical 25th frame which does not exist, yet which everyone believes in and which inexorably influences their consciousness.: Tatyana Tafintseva, The Art Newspaper Russia

Kamenkovich handles this brilliantly in the first act. He brings onto the stage the finest actors of the Fomenko Workshop’s middle generation — those who, as trainees, still had the chance to work under Pyotr Fomenko himself. […] Where the Fomenko actors offer a wry smile, Bogomolov gives us trolling and a grimace.: Yana Zhilyaeva, Forbes

Among its many virtues, the production also delights with its virtuoso command of the art of “stealing like an artist” — and there is not a trace of sarcasm in that praise. If Austin Kleon were compiling a list of his most talented disciples, the creators of 4 Days in the 25th Frame would make the shortlist. There is no sense of deliberate homage, randomly scattered Easter eggs or — heaven forbid — straightforward imitation. Yet the anxious atmosphere of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Bogomolov’s mocking derision of émigrés, the devastating accessibility of KVN-style comedy and much more are all conveyed beautifully.: Olga Vladimirskaya, Musecube.org

A close-knit creative team has taken on the task of bringing this poetic and non-realist world to the stage. Set designer Evgenia Shutina creates a multi-level, metaphorical space; costume designer Maria Borovskaya and lighting designer Vladislav Frolov emphasize the fragile boundary between dream and waking life. Choreographer Vitaly Dovgalyuk’s physical score creates a special atmosphere, complemented by Alexandra Keselman’s musical design.: Tatyana Tafintseva, The Art Newspaper Russia

And then you tumble back out into life, and everything in it seems like a continuation of the play: abusers, art therapy, women with low self-esteem starting relationships with married men, others tying on a headscarf and praying to the Holy Virgin, people signing up for workshops. […] Everything seems to continue the production, except that in the asylum there are diagnoses and routines, in the theatre there are its own laws, and in the performance there is design and beauty — while out here, in our world, there is nothing of the kind. And the picture is out of focus.: Polina Sanaeva, Snob