Onegin. Commentaries, based on the verse novel by Alexander Pushkin

"This is a playful but, undoubtedly, revealing research. Don't miss it."

- TOMS TREIBERGS, ARTERRITORY.COM

Internationally renowned artist, acclaimed by critics as Master on the international scene, the Latvian director Alvis Hermanis comes back to Madrid on February. Hermanis' international success is determined not only by the quality of his plays but also by the continuous research in developing his style and by the his creativity in finding resources hybridizing different stylistic languages. According to his recent productions inspired by the great Russian writers, Hermanis will stage on the XXXI Festival de Otoño a Primavera Onegin. Commentaries, an original research based on the novel Yevgeny Onegin by the great Russian writer Alexander Pushkin.

For those who have not read Pushkin's Yevgeny Onegin, this story might seem like an exalted unhappy love story - an opinion made mainly by the famous Tchaikovsky opera. For the writer's contemporaries, however, this book became a detailed testimony of the era, describing the Russian society in the first half of the 19th century. The performance focuses not only on Pushkin's story itself but also on the historical context that explains the novel. The texts written by Pushkin stand along with the commentaries of different authors but mainly those by the legendary semiotic Yuri Lotman. Lotman considered that reading a historical text requires the complete knowledge of the everyday residential rituals' archeology that, for the contemporary reader, remains hidden behind the writer's words.

The premiere of Onegin. Commentaries took place in Latvia on April 5 2012 in the The New Riga Theatre. The play is performed in Latvian and Russian (language in which the Pushkin verses are recited), with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

 

Credits

ACTORS: Iveta Pole, Sandra Kļaviņa, Vilis Daudziņš, Kaspars Znotiņš, Ivars Krasts, Andris Keiŝs

DIRECTOR: Alvis Hermanis

DESIGNER: Andris Freibergs

COMPUTER GRAPHICS: Ineta Sipunova

SOUND AND VIDEO: Gatis Builis

LIGHT: Arturs Skujiņš-Meijiņš

LIGHT DESIGNER: Krišjãnis Strazdĩts

HEAD STAGE TECHNICIAN: Jãnis Liniņš

STAGE TECHNICIAN: Andris Skotelis

STAGE MANAGER: Zane Staņa

TOUR MANAGER: Elĩna Adamaite

 

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