directed by Lev Dodin
Maly Theatre


Written by Lyudmila Petruschevskaja, writer of biting short stories and theatre pieces, The Moscow Choir narrates the lives, the aspirations, the dreams - but also the brutalities, the arrogance and abuses - of the inhabitants of a kommunalka, a shared flat in Moscow in 1956/1957.

The vivid group of personalities who populates this microcosmos is interpreted by the extraordinary cast of the Maly Theatre. The staging is by Igor Konyaev, a former student of Lev Dodin, who is the artistic coordinator of this project.

"Lyudmila Petruschevskaja is among the most important contemporary Russian dramaturges, a writer full of humanity and sincerity. The period she is talking about is already history, but it is also the time in which the origins of our present are taking shape. Staging The Moscow Choir, I've tried to remember those years of my childhood and adolescence. For me, it is a very special play and I hope that the public will discover its affinities to the Russian people." Lev Dodin

The Moscow Choir illuminates the period of the XX Congress of the Communist Party (which began to question the cult of Stalin) with a glimpse of history, that shines through the private themes of the kommunalka.

The destiny of three generations of a Moscow family at the beginning of the Kruschev epoch: in a little apartment, Lika awaits the return of her sister and her niece, finally liberated after the new regime has closed down Stalin's gulags. The arrival of these two women leads us into the heart of the family clan, surviving in a diverse and painfull reality. Parallely, the other inhabitants of the kommunalka have formed a choir, trying to win a singing competition: final prize is a travel to the attracting and "transgressive" Berlin of these days.

A great choral spectacle which is marked by the unmistakable poetics of the Maly Theatre.

Duration: three hours with one intermission.

Lev Dodin Biography One of the modern Russian directors best known in his country and abroad, Lev Dodin was born in Siberia in 1944. After WW II, the family moved to Saint Petersburg, where Dodin has lived ever since. His interest in theatre began very early. After some work as an amateur, he was admitted to the Saint Petersburg Theater Institute where he studied under Boris Zon, who in his turn had been the pupil of Stanislavski. His studies finished, he was the guest director for many prestigious companies such as the Moscow Art Theatre and the Bolshoi of Saint Petersburg.

He had his first success directing One Always Arranges Things With Oneself by Alexander Ostrovski, an independent production; subsequently he would direct works by Valentin Rasputin, Karel Capek, Tennessee Williams, Feodor Doestoievski. His staging of Fyodor Abramov's The House set the seal on his fame throughout Russia. Dodin took over as Artistic Director of the Maly Teatr in 1983. The "truth" in Soviet art was well defined within precise limits that were not to be crossed, and very few ventured beyond these limits.
Lev Dodin was one who did. Searching through his art to perceive the "truth" in man and in the world that surrounds him - to do this he chose a sure and powerful ally:
great literature, and above all the great Russian classics.

While carrying on his work with the Maly Teatr, Lev Dodin has continued to teach at the Theatre Institute of Saint Petersburg, where he has taught for more than 20 years, forming whole generations of actors. Many of the actors of the Maly Teatr company were his students.

The Maly Teatr (literal translation, "Little Theatre") was founded in Leningrad at the end of the Second World War, in 1944. It had a theatre located at 18 Rubinstein Street, and a permanent company.

The attention given the company was the result of the importance of Yefim Padve, its first director, who gathered around himself a company of young actors and directors, among whom was Lev Dodin, who became the company's director in 1983. Dodin brought to the Maly Teatr his best students from the Theatre Institute of Leningrad, with whom he began work in 1976 on a collective work centered on several modern authors. The ties between the Maly Teatr and the Theatre Institute through the years became tighter and more privileged: many shows first created in the school then went on to form part of the permanent repertory of the Maly, and are regularly performed today. However, the most important gift of this bond is that, in this way, a new group of artists was formed, a group that developed a new language based in their common experience.

The Maly Teatr has been seen all over the world; in Japan, the United States, all over Europe, performing many of their