On November 29, the premiere of Galina Zaltsman’s play “First Love” (16+) will take place on the Big Stage of the St. Petersburg Youth Theater named after Bryantsev based on the story of the same name by Turgenev.
Galina Zaltsman talks about the choice of material: “I love working with classics, too, because you can look at it from a different perspective, from the perspective of today, and I think this is an interesting task, important for the theater – and especially for the theater , who talks to a young viewer. I was interested in talking about a topic that concerns everyone, and not necessarily at a young age: love is such a thing that can happen to anyone at any time.”
Especially for the production, playwright Anna Geyzhan wrote a stage play based on Turgenev’s story. The director talks about the resulting drama: “In it, the main theme is not so much the feeling of the first touch of love, but rather the revolution in a person’s life when something else begins to shine through his egoistic feeling.” For the creators of the play, the change that occurs in the main character after the first strong manifestation of romantic feelings is important. The romantic triangle set in the story remains, but in the play, according to the director, it is the relationship between the hero and his father that comes to the fore.
“This is a story of tragic love and the story of a young man growing up,” says Galina Zaltsman. “Even as he gets older, he can’t forget about her.” But his memories are not what really happened. What happened and what we remember are two different things. The protagonist’s relived memories of his first love help him better understand his present, rethink the past and find a new self. They change him and teach him to accept the world as it is.”
The central artistic image of the performance, created by set designer Dmitry Razumov, is a room in an abandoned house, through the parquet of which the “grass of memories” grows.
Composer Vasily Tonkovidov, choreographer Maxim Pakhomov and lighting designer Denis Solntsev are also working on the performance.
The production stars Sergei Zhukovich, Semyon Tolov, Bogdan Korshunov, Irina Volkova, Milana Vladykina, Yanina Bushina, Dmitry Tkachenko, Denis Gilmanov, Elizaveta Prilepskaya, Alexander Bobrovsky, Gleb Borisov, Danila Lobov, Nikita Ostrikov, Egor Pogasy, Ivan Stryuk.
