DEAD SOULS
Directed by Roman Kocherzhevsky
Written by Nikolai Gogol
Production: Lensoviet Theatre
Nikolai Gogol’s “Dead Souls” tells the story of a disgraced government official, Pavel Chichikov, who by manipulating the inefficiencies of the Imperial Russian government by purchasing the rights of dead serfs from middle-class landowners, is able to amass a personal fortune. Roman Kocherzhevsky’s endlessly inventive reimagining of the classic Russian poem shakes off a layer of dust from the revered work to help us answer questions we all face today. It doesn’t matter whether Kocherzhevsky has dressed his actors in waterproof trench coats or embroidered tailcoats, furnished the stage with delicate antiquities or Danish modern. In the end, as Gogol himself asks of us, “Isn’t there some part of Chichikov in me too?“
Presented in Russian with English subtitles.
Photos by Yulia Smelkina, Yulia Kudryashova
Language: Russian
Translation: English subtitles
Running time: 2h 11min
Director Roman Kocherzhevsky on the production:
“The work with "Dead Souls" arose out of a desire to understand my youthful impressions of the text. This story is created, on the one hand, from my memories and, on the other hand, from the memories of the characters. Each of them is trying to remember the events depicted in the novel, and since it’s from their memories, time and place are distorted. All of them remember Chichikov in their own way as his visit rekindled in them something long forgotten. Chichikov freeing the landowners from the burden of dead souls, finds himself as one of them, in the same harness of the eternally rushing troika.”
Creative Team
Adapted & Staged by Roman Kocherzhevsky
Costume Design by Sergey Illarionov
Lighting Design by Gidal Shugaev
Stage Manager – Yulia Smelkina
Sound – Faina Makoeva
Cast
Pavel Chichikov – Fedor Pshenichny
Manilov – Alexander Novikov
Elizaveta Manilova – Natalia Shamina
Nastasya Korobochka – Anna Kovalchuk
Nozdrev, Pavel Chichikov – Sergey Peregudov
Mikhail Sobakevich, Pavel Chichikov – Vitaly Kulikov
Feodulia Sobakevich – Laura Pitskhelauri
Stepan Plyushkin, the Governor – Sergey Migitsko
The Governor's Daughter – Rimma Sarkisyan