NATASHA'S DREAM

One of the most resonant texts to have emerged in Russia over the last two or three years.

- MOSCOW TIMES

The work, Natasha's Dream, by the young Russian playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich, is an ode to adolescence which she, in fact, wrote as a young teenager.

The monologue is performed by Elena Gorina, magnificent in her role as Natasha, a young resident at a centre where she has to cope with the loneliness and anguish brought about by her relations with a few of her less desirable companions and some insensitive teachers, incapable of showing her how to lead a normal life. Although she finally escapes from this incarceration, the cold and inhospitable outside world is no better.

The minimalist staging - a comb, a hairpin, some pieces of white chalk and an onstage change of costume - means all attention is focused on a text which says much more than what is simply spoken on the stage. Sixteen-year-old Natasha, sometimes tight-lipped or whispering, makes the silence talk which, to her, seems impossible because of a suffering borne from a luckless life which began after the premature death of her prostitute mother at the hands of her pimp.

Under the magnificent and subtle direction of Shamil Dyikanbaev and through an acting tour de force, the audience will enjoy the talents of Elena Gorina at her finest.

For Natasha's Dream, Pulinovich won the prestigious Debut Prize in 2008 awarded to writers in Russian under the age of 25.

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