Coming Soon
Premiere
On 3 and 4 April 2021
David Berry
The Whales of August 16+
A Play in Two Acts
Translated in Russian by Valentina Khitrovo-Shmyrova
Director – Denis Khusniyarov
Set Designer – Emil Kapelyush
Costume Designer – Stefania Graurogkaite
Lighting Designer – Igor Fomin
Composer – Vitaly Istomin
Video Designer - Natalia Naumova
This is a story of two sisters spending summer on an island off the coast of Maine, waiting for the whales to come directly from their youth. The whales' arrival means that the life goes on. And memory revives the pages of past love and past passions...
The play "The Whales of August" is elegiac, tender and full of compassion and is considered to be the best work of American playwright and screenwriter David Adams Berry. It is sad when the best part of life has passed, and the time for memories comes, but one must find peace and be more tolerant of each other... The past of elderly heroes is full of personal trials, historical tribulations and fantastic events that brought a former aristocrat from the Russian imperial court to a distant island.
The famous filmmaker Lindsay Anderson directed a film based on the play starring the legendary Lillian Gish and Bette Davis.
The creators of the show at the Theater on Vasilievsky are recognized figures of theatrical art.
Denis Khusniyarov
Chief Director of the Chamber stage
Denis Khusniyarov graduated from the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in Saint Petersburg and staged performances in different theatres of the city recieving numerous awards. He has been working at the Theatre on Vasilevsky since 2010 where he created several performances based on Russian and foreign classics, as well as on the modern drama. His works at the Theatre became notable events due to the awards they got at different Russian festivals.
Emil Kapelyush
Set Designer, Painter, Graphic Artist
Born in Leningrad on July 26, 1954. Graduated from the same Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in 1976 as a set designer. He worked in theaters of Leningrad, Moscow, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kuibyshev (Samara), Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, as well as in England, Germany, France, USA, Finland, Switzerland, South Korea, China, Bulgaria.
He has designed about 300 performances.
Since 1976 he has been participating in exhibitions as a painter and graphic artist having 13 personal exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. It is possible to see the artist's works in museums of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm, New Jersey (USA), as well as in private collections in Russia and abroad.
Denis Khusniyarov chose for his performance a golden cast of the Theatre, its best masters widely famous by their roles in movies and TV series.
Cast:
Sarah Webber – Merited Artist of Russia Nadezhda Zhivodiorova
Libby Strong – People's Artist of Russia Natalia Kutasova
Tisha Doughty - People's Artist of Russia Tatiana Malyagina
Nicholas Maranov – People's Artist of Russia Yuri Itskov
Joshua Brackett – Vladimir Postnikov
The performance will be especially appreciated by those who cherish the atmosphere of spontaneous moods and delicate feelings.
Running time 2 h 30 min including interval