THEATER
"Dead Souls" Gogol Center - Kirill Serebrennikov
From 01 July to 02 July 2020 · Athens
Venue Details
Ag I Rentis - Kaminia
Peiraios 260 - H Building
Peiraios 260 kai Polykratoys
Due to the ongoing pandemic, all performance dates are subject to change
“What is it you seek of me, O Russia? What is the hidden bond which subsists between us?” (trans. D. J. Hogarth): This is what Nikolai Gogol wonders in his satirical masterpiece Dead Souls (1842) – a scream echoing over two centuries. Using this iconic cry as a springboard, Kirill Serebrennikov, artistic director of Gogol Center and enfant terrible of contemporary theatre, adapts Gogol’s novel, a vitriolic, epic tapestry of Russian society, in what marks his first appearance in Greece.
In this performance, described as a “slap in the face of Russian mores”, Serebrennikov paints a vivid picture of this complex, charming and absurd society. Ten male performers take on the characters of the novel, men, women and even dogs, shouting, laughing, dancing, singing and barking on stage. Con artists, alcoholics, gamblers, maniacs, thieves and shysters inhabit Gogol’s darkly funny and poetic universe; a gallery of outrageous, colourful, hilarious characters who are also unsettlingly familiar beneath their triviality: dressed with modern clothes, they become figures recognisable to all of us. Like puppets, they move wildly around, trapped in a plywood box which proves to be their coffin: they are, in fact, the titular Dead Souls, who, being morally bankrupt, end up as devoid of life as the dead serfs at whose expense they profit.
Based on the novel by Nikolai Gogol
Directing - Costume design: Kirill Serebrennikov
Lighting design: Igor Kapustin
Music director: Arina Zvereva
Vocal tutors: Arina Zvereva, Anton Ivanov
Contrabass tutor: Andrei Samoilov
Costume design and construction: Svetlana Volter
Assistant to the costume designer: Veneamin Ilyasov
Technologist - Constructor: Girt Mucenieks
Assistant director: Anastasia Uvarkova
Executive producer: Yaroslava Ziva-Chernova
Cast: Odin Bairon, Oleg Guchin, Mikhail Troynik, Andrey Rebenkov, Artem Shevchenko, Nikita Kukushkin, Anton Vasiliev, Evgeny Sangadzhiev, Andrey Polyakov
Duration 2 hours 25 mins.
As part of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2020. Kirill Serebrennikov adapts Gogol’s novel, a vitriolic, epic tapestry of Russian society, in what marks his first appearance in Greece.
“What is it you seek of me, O Russia? What is the hidden bond which subsists between us?” (trans. D. J. Hogarth): This is what Nikolai Gogol wonders in his satirical masterpiece Dead Souls (1842) – a scream echoing over two centuries. Using this iconic cry as a springboard, Kirill Serebrennikov, artistic director of Gogol Center and enfant terrible of contemporary theatre, adapts Gogol’s novel, a vitriolic, epic tapestry of Russian society, in what marks his first appearance in Greece.
In this performance, described as a “slap in the face of Russian mores”, Serebrennikov paints a vivid picture of this complex, charming and absurd society. Ten male performers take on the characters of the novel, men, women and even dogs, shouting, laughing, dancing, singing and barking on stage. Con artists, alcoholics, gamblers, maniacs, thieves and shysters inhabit Gogol’s darkly funny and poetic universe; a gallery of outrageous, colourful, hilarious characters who are also unsettlingly familiar beneath their triviality: dressed with modern clothes, they become figures recognisable to all of us. Like puppets, they move wildly around, trapped in a plywood box which proves to be their coffin: they are, in fact, the titular Dead Souls, who, being morally bankrupt, end up as devoid of life as the dead serfs at whose expense they profit.
Based on the novel by Nikolai Gogol
Directing - Costume design: Kirill Serebrennikov
Lighting design: Igor Kapustin
Music director: Arina Zvereva
Vocal tutors: Arina Zvereva, Anton Ivanov
Contrabass tutor: Andrei Samoilov
Costume design and construction: Svetlana Volter
Assistant to the costume designer: Veneamin Ilyasov
Technologist - Constructor: Girt Mucenieks
Assistant director: Anastasia Uvarkova
Executive producer: Yaroslava Ziva-Chernova
Cast: Odin Bairon, Oleg Guchin, Mikhail Troynik, Andrey Rebenkov, Artem Shevchenko, Nikita Kukushkin, Anton Vasiliev, Evgeny Sangadzhiev, Andrey Polyakov
Duration 2 hours 25 mins.
As part of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2020. Kirill Serebrennikov adapts Gogol’s novel, a vitriolic, epic tapestry of Russian society, in what marks his first appearance in Greece.
