CHILDREN OF THE SUN
Written by Maxim Gorky
Red Torch Theatre, Novosibirsk
Written during the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905, Maxim Gorky's brilliant darkly comic "Children of the Sun" depicts the new middle-class, foolish perhaps but likeable, as they flounder, philosophize, and yearn for meaning, all while being totally blind to their impending annihilation. Multi-award-winning director Timofey Kulyabin's (Three Sisters, Onegin) modernized production, set in 1999 at Stanford University, focuses on the interplay between the characters, the relationships formed and broken, sparring over culture and the cosmos, barely sensing that their own privileged world is in jeopardy. Directed for the screen by Kulyabin and filmed from his Red Torch Theatre in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Photo: Frol Podlesny
Language: Russian
Translation: English subtitles
Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes
7 Golden Mask Nominations for Best Chamber Stage Production, Best Director, Best Stage Designer, 4 for Best Actor/Actress
"Gorky's text shines like new" - Kommersant
"What true contemporary theatre looks like" - Colta.ru
"A direct hit into today's mindset" - Theatre Journal Okolo
About the Director: Timofey Kulyabin is one of the most prominent young directors in Russia today. At 35, he has already staged nearly two dozen productions across the Russian Federation as well as internationally in, among many, France, Austria, Romania, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. In 2016, he was commissioned by Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre to stage Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale" and in 2019 returned to the great theatre, offering up a new staging there of Dvořák's opera "Rusalka". Kulyabin's other work for Stage Russia includes a 2017 presented sign-language version of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" and a 2018 Golden Mask Award-winning staging of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin".
Creative Team
Director – Timofey Kulyabin
Set Design – Oleg Golovko
Lighting Designer – Aleksandr Romanov
Dramaturgy – Olga Fedyanina
Cast
Pavel Fyodorovich Protasov – Pavel Polyakov
Lisa, his sister – Irina Krivonos
Elena Nikolaevna, his wife – Darya Emelyanova
Dmitriy Sergeyevich Vagin – Konstantin Telegin
Boris Nikolaevich Chepurnoy – Andrey Chernykh
Melaniya, his sister – Ekaterina Zhirova
Fima, maid – Valeriya Kruchinina
Press
Children of the Sun at the Red Torch Theatre, Okolo Theatre Magazine (Russian language)
Interview with Darya Emelyanova, thereklama.com (Russian language)