The same rakes. In Valmiera, Elmārs Senkovs stages «Nelabos. After Dostoevsky »/ art

A modern version of one of the best novels of all time was created by director Elmārs Senkovs and playwright Justīne Kļava.

“It is time to bring back to the table those books we were talking about 150 years ago. Dostoevsky’s” Devils “are exactly 150 years old, and we know that history is cyclical, even historians have shown it, and we still do not learn from ours mistakes, we still get on the same rakes “, says the director.

Kliava explains: “The novel” The Devil “by Dostoevsky is one of the five great, of those great works that are considered the main ones of the world’s literary heritage. Although this work was written in 1872, in itself it speaks of a sort of radicalism of young people, and therefore we have tried to insert those key words that could represent today, for example, any type of radical student movement or youth movement “.

The three-part fight for justice lasts four hours and is very modern. From the creative field of idle but socially active young people, where progressive ideas have prevailed and personal passions swirl, events gradually turn into lust for power, betrayal, moral and political nihilism, revealing the ways in which an innocent young person decides of favor of evil deeds and bloodshed.

Actress Ieva Ester Barkāne is convinced that any kind of radicalism, even that originally intended as something beautiful and noble, can turn into something terrible: “Nowadays, it’s such a left-wing politics, a crazy exaggerated liberalism, which really resonates with it The time of the “devil”, that is Dostoevsky’s time, because the things those young people talk about are exactly the same: everyone wants to change the system, build a new society. Yes, he understood that and he will not change. “

Justine Kljava points out: “All the characters that are in the novel have been preserved. Julia Mihailovna is combined with Varvara Stavrogina, because both of them together somehow represent a woman in a position of power, which has a great influence in society. But, speaking, of the plot, it is clear that we cannot tell everything in 650 pages, but we have taken exactly the essence of it “.

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