Kansky Drama Theater
2024

Author: Ivan Bunin
Director: Yana Selezneva
Stage and costume designer: Julia Vetrova

A Note on the Production

While crafting the visual and emotional world of this play, I sought to evoke a deeply personal atmosphere—one that breathes life into the fleeting yet profound moments of childhood. The tall grass swaying near my grandmother’s house, where I once ran carefree; the tree that cradled our makeshift fort; the soft, sun-warmed earth beneath bare feet; the house itself, weathered by time, its walls sighing with memories, as if objects and fragments of the past spilled freely from its seams like preserved treasures.

This production is infused with the raw, untamed forces of nature—snow, rain, wind, dust storms—elements that mirror the turbulence of memory and displacement. These recollections are more than nostalgia; they are embers that still glow within me, a vital warmth in these cold and uncertain times.

Today, creating art demands resilience. Yet it is precisely why this play holds such profound meaning for me. Together, we navigate the emotional landscape of a person severed from their homeland—whether by physical exile or the silent erosion of belonging. We walk alongside our protagonist, whose only remnants of the past are memories—fragile yet indomitable, carried like sacred relics. To lose them would be an unspeakable tragedy, akin to losing oneself entirely, to feel the very ground dissolve beneath one’s feet—a sensation all too familiar in our precarious present.