Pismovnik. Elegie

At the core of the performance lies the novel “Pismovnik” by Mikhail Shishkin, one of the most significant voices in contemporary Russian literature. The novel is built around the correspondence between two lovers — a correspondence that is illusory, as the characters write without ever receiving replies.

A young writer sets off to war, joining a multinational campaign of Russians, Americans, Germans, Japanese, and French forces marching on Beijing to suppress the Boxer Rebellion (also known as the Yihetuan Movement) of 1898–1901. He dies at the beginning of the novel. His beloved lives a long life, writing letters to her fallen companion. He is gone, but love remains. The lovers hear and feel each other, despite everything that separates people — time, space, death.

The production draws upon the novel’s central thread — lyrical and philosophical. The author so masterfully, convincingly, and simply addresses eternal questions of love, life, and death that Alexey Botvinov concluded: only music was missing. Music of equal virtuosity and emotional depth — the great classics of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin.

For this project, Alexey Botvinov created a stage adaptation of the novel, arranged the music, and for the first time took on the roles of director and stage designer.