Tomsk’s Young Spectators’ Theatre to host a premiere of The Book of Everything as part of the contemporary children's theater laboratory
25 november 2021
November 27, 2021, will see Tomsk’s Young Spectators’ Theater give a premiere of a new production of The Book of Everything directed by Artyom Ustinov and based on the eponymous story by Guus Kuijer. The show’s premiere is the second and the final stage of the contemporary children's theater laboratory, a new season of Art Laboratories organized jointly by the Territoriya Festival and School of Contemporary Art and SIBUR. The 2021 project is being curated by theatrical director Dmitri Akimov. The show will premiere on Tomsk’s Young Spectators’ Theater’s greater stage. After the show, the audience will be invited to stay for a discussion with the production team.
The sketch for The Book of Everything production was chosen for being put on stage by those who participated in the first stage of the laboratory that took place in Tomsk on September 27 through October 3. Guus Kuijer, the book’s author, had received one of the most coveted awards in children's literature, the Astrid Lindgren Award.
The Book of Everything, published in 2004, takes spectators back to the 1950s. Intertwined within the story plot are magic and ordinary life, humor and cruelty. The play’s protagonist, the 9-year-old Thomas, is determined to be happy even though his own life and the life of his family are full of many burning problems. He knows that anything is possible. The key to success is to stop being afraid.
Not every book gets imprinted in one’s memory. I picked this one up two years ago and I committed it to my memory, Artyom Ustinov, the show’s director, commented. Usually, you get the feeling that you've read it all before. But in this case I sensed that within the story serious and even scary things exist next to the funny ones, and modern context coexists with informal fantasy. That's something you come across very rarely. That's why I came back to this text at the lab.
The play is being produced by the artist Igor Kanevsky and lighting designer Natalia Gara. The cast includes Timofey Abaskalov, Vladimir Khvoronov, Olga Ulyanovskaya, Natalia Gitlits, Apollinaria Musinova, Olga Nikitina, Ekaterina Kostina, and Roman Kolbin.
Tickets are available at the theater's box office at 4 Nakhanovicha Lane, as well as online at www.tuz-tomsk.ru.
Due to COVID-related restrictions, a valid QR code confirming one’s COVID-19 vaccination or exposure status, or a negative PCR test result issued not earlier than 72 hours before the show will be required for attending the performance.