Thanks to SIBUR’s support, Tomsk hosted Theatre of Nations’ touring production
21 november 2022
On November 7, the main stage of the Tomsk Drama Theater hosted a touring production of The Passions According to Thomas by the Theater of Nations as part of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. The production that was put on stage by Yevgeny Marchelli, a two times winner of the Golden Mask Award, is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Village of Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants.
The role of Thomas Opiskin was played by People's Artist of Russia Avangard Leontyev. The show’s cast also included Merited Artists of Russia Vladimir Meisinger, Irina Pulina, and Sergey Kolesnikov, as well as Anna Galinova, Oleg Ots, and others.
At the press conference held before the show’s first showing, Larisa Vazhova, Deputy Head of Tomsk Oblast's Department of Culture, underscored that: Thanks to our cooperation with SIBUR, a great number of good deeds have been done since 2015 in Tomsk Oblast’s theatrical realm. We are infinitely proud of our friendship with the Theatre of Nations, because the very presence of the theater’s actors here is a great gift not only to our locally based actors, but also to all residents of our city. We hope that the project will continue into the future and that our meetings will be as frequent and enjoyable as before.
The Theatre of Nations operates based on the principle of project performances as it is not a repertory theater with its own permanent troupe. A creative team of a director, artists, actors, etc. is gathered separately for each production project. That is why each production is unique in its own way. The Passions According to Thomas premiered in September 2020, and since then the play has already been presented to diverse audiences in Saratov, Nizhny Tagil, Tobolsk, Omsk, and has now reached Tomsk.
We have been working with the Theatre of Nations since 2015 – and we’ve covered a long way. The theatre's tour in Tomsk is a unique opportunity for our city’s audiences and for more than 300 employees of Tomskneftekhim to experience firsthand and become more familiar with this classic piece by one of the greatest Russian writers, Vladimir Pleshkov, general director of Tomskneftekhim, commented. Dostoevsky always puts man, his inner world, feelings and secret working of his heart at the forefront. He analyzes such notions as nobility and honesty. These questions are especially relevant now when everything is changing rapidly and in the whirlpool of events around one needs to find a fundamental frame of reference. And art plays a positive role in this process."
The choice of The Passions According to Thomas for the touring performance in Tomsk was not fortuitous. To begin with, it is a large-format production, allowing it to be shown on the main stage of the theatre. Secondly, the text of the play was authored by Dostoevsky whose pivotal events in life were associated with Siberia, which left a strong impression on his later creative career.
Members of the cast, speaking about the upcoming show, noted that they are all atwitter about what the audience's reception of the production would be. I toured Tomsk with the Tabakov Theatre some 30 years ago, and I have good memories of that tour, Avangard Leontyev recalls. When we are on stage, we want the audience to understand us clearly and have interest in getting to know this piece better. A production’s success and quality as well as the actors’ performance largely depend on the audience’s reception. What is key is how involved Tomsk residents are in the theatrical process, how close they are to their local theatre.
Vladimir Meisinger has a long history with Siberia: he had spent 10 years working in Omsk. In 2005, he came to Tomsk as part of the company of Omsk Drama Theatre with the production of "Summerfolk" put on stage by the same director, Evgeniy Marchelli. Siberian audiences are very close to my heart, and I am very happy to be back in Siberia with a production by the same director, the actor stressed.
Oleg Molitvin, the principal director of the Tomsk Drama Theatre, summed it all up nicely: It is a great honor and pleasure for our theatre to host a production by the Theatre of Nations. Our most important master class will be tonight during the show, something our actors are definitely looking forward to and getting ready for. We are confident that our Tomsk audiences won't be disappointed either.
The Passions According to Thomas drew a full house. The audience welcomed the actors of the Theatre of Nations very warmly, reacting spontaneously to the actors’ lines during the performance and giving them a standing ovation after the performance, keeping them on stage for the longest time and causing them to take the curtain several times.