This beautifully simple and unfussy staging of another Chekhov masterwork, The Cherry Orchard, allows the audience to focus on the text, which is a hallmark of Sovremennik’s approach. It enables actors and audience to make a direct and powerful emotional connection as the characters face an uncertain future in a rapidly changing Russia at the turn of the 20th century.
The Moscow-based Sovremennik Theatre, founded in 1956, is a giant of the Russian theatrical and artistic landscape. The company have toured extensively in Europe and America and were the first foreign company to win an American Drama Desk Award. Now Sovremennik are bringing three of their acclaimed productions to the West End for the first time under the direction of Galina Volchek, who was a founding member of Sovremennik and is regarded as one of Russia’s greatest theatre practitioners.
Sovremennik’s strictly limited season at the Noël Coward Theatre, made possible with generous support from Roman Abramovich, features three plays, all performed in Russian with surtitles. This is the first time in more than 20 years that a leading Russian theatre company has visited the capital and is a rare opportunity not to be missed.